
Class 






G}pigtitN« / f / 6 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



THE 



CALL OF THE HEN 



OR THE SCIENCE OF 



SELECTING AND BREEDING POULTRY 
FOR EGG-PRODUCTION 



BY 

WALTER HOGAN 



Copyrighted, 1913, in the United States and Canada, Great Britain, 

Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany and Denmark. 

[All Rights Reserved.] 

Copyrighted, 1614. Copyrighted, 1916. 



PRICE, $2.00 



Revised, Published and Sold by the 
AMERICAN SCHOOL OF POULTRY HUSBANDRY 

LEAVENWORTH, KANSAS. 






DEDICATED 

TO THE POULTRYMEN WHO, 

LIKE THE AUTHOR, 

DO NOT KNOW IT ALL. 



V 
I 

/ .' ■ 



OCT 23 1916 



HUGH STEPHENS JEFFERSON CITY 



©Cl.A44603u 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



3 




Lady Show You, a White Plymouth Rock hen, that holds the 
world's egg record for a two-year-old hen; laid 281 eggs in the Na- 
tional Egg-laying Contest at the Missouri State Poultry Experi- 
ment Station, Mountain Grove, Mo. She met the Hogan test. 





The Missouri State 

Poultry Experihent 

Station 

Mountain Grove, 

Mo. 





PRIZE 
PEN 







MISSOURI 

NATIONAL 

EGG 

LAYING 

CONTEST 



MOUNTAIN 
GROVE 

1 1-1912 




Photographed by request of the Chamber of Commerce, Petaluma, 

Calif. 

These hens weighed, less than 4 pounds each and laid 131 pounds 
and 2 ounces of eggs. They won the prize for laying the greatest 
weight in eggs in the National Egg-laying Contest. Each hen's 
eggs would have sold for $4.50 on the Petaluma Market, if reduced 
to No. 1 eggs. They are the result of five years' breeding by the 
author from common Petaluma Single Comb White Leghorns. 
It is possible for the reader to do the same with almost any breed 
by following instructions in this book. 



PREFACE 



This is an age which demands action, applied thought, 
and a practical, actual, and workable science. The world 
is demanding to know, not "What are you?" or "What do 
you look like?" but "What can you do?" Drones are being 
culled out in all lines of business activity, and rightly so; 
and the same is true with the poultry business. The hen 
which delivers the goods is the hen which is in demand. 
"The hen that lays is the hen that pays." 

We have two reasons for publishing The Call of the 
Hen. Some three years ago Mr. Hogan sent us three males, 
all Single Comb White Leghorns; one was of his 280-egg 
type, selected according to this system, another was of the 
150-egg type, and the third was of a 70- or 80-egg type. 
He also sent us two pens of hens of his own selection and breed- 
ing. We trapnested all the hens, and bred from all three 
males. The results in every case have borne out Mr. Hogan's 
claims and the truthfulness of his methods of selection and 
breeding. We have also tested the hens in the egg-laying 
contests; taken measurements and made tests and judged 
their capacity for laying as per this system. The Call of 
THE Hen. The results so nearly tally with the system in 
practically every case that we feel that this is a valuable 
method of selection and breeding, which should be in the 
hands of everyone who attempts to raise poultry. 

Capacity, condition, type, and vigor must all be taken 
into consideration in determining whether a hen will be a 
good producer or a poor producer. By making a careful 
and sensible application of the rules made known in this 
book, it is possible for any poultry-raiser to avoid great loss. 

We are told, and have good reason to believe that it 
is true, that the average farm hen lays less than 80 eggs 
per year. If that be true, about half the poultry is being 
kept at a loss to the owner. If this is the condition, are we 
not justified in doing something to attract the attention 
of the farmers and poultry-raisers to methods and practices 
which will lead to the production of more eggs from the aver- 

(5) 



6 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

age hen, and to the necessity of cuUing and selection, and to 
more careful and painstaking methods? 

The object of The Call of the Hen is to stimulate 
an interest in increased egg-production in all varieties of 
poultry and to encourage the breeding of strains of high- 
producers. We have come to the point where our efforts 
to breed fowls with perfect plumage for show purposes has 
overshadowed that of the ability of our hens to lay; and it 
can certainly result in no harm to call the attention of the 
breeders of the nation to the good which would certainly 
come from a study of the things which would tend to increase 
egg-production. We should all be vitally concerned in any 
attempt to better conditions, to increase the productiveness 
of the hen, and to give impetus to an industry which is already 
one of our greatest agricultural factors. 

For a half century the fanciers and poultrymen generally 
have devoted their attention to the show-room in the de- 
velopment of shape and color. No opportunity has been 
offered or anything specially done to encourage the farmer 
and poultryman to develop the natural resources of the hen 
— ^her ability to lay eggs. A few of our best experiment 
stations have made some investigations along this line and 
done some very valuable work indeed. Here and there an 
occasional poultry-breeder has given some thought and at- 
tention to breeding for egg-production; but certainly, as a 
whole, the attention of breeders generally has not been along 
this line, and it seems that this important matter has been 
too much neglected. 

Haphazard methods of mating and breeding don't pay, 
and indiscriminate methods cannot prove successful in build- 
ing up a flock of laying hens. There n^ver was a time in 
the history of this country when poultry and eggs were in 
greater demand; the price at which poultry and eggs sell 
has increased much more in proportion than has the price 
of feeds necessary to produce these products; but because 
the industry is flourishing to-day more than ever before does 
not justify us in continuing indiscriminate or foolhardy 
methods. The opportunity is ours to insure greater profits, 
if we will but carefully and systematically solve the problem 
which is facing us: "How can we insure a reasonably high 
average egg-production?" 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 7 

The interests of the fancier are served through the show- 
room. If a breeder enters birds in a show-room and is beaten, 
he tries to improve his flock and perfect it by introducing 
new blood or by improved methods of breeding and careful 
selection. If he wins, he tries to keep his flock in that high 
state of perfection. It is just as important, and even more so, 
that he know just what his flock can do in the matter of pro- 
duction, and he ought to use the same care in trying to per- 
fect his strain of layers. 

There are exceptions to all rules. You will find some 
exceptions in selecting, testing, and breeding your poultry 
according to the method described in The Call of the 
Hen; but many breeders have tested it for some six or eight 
years; many of these have doubled their egg-yield in this 
time. We feel certain that Mr. Hogan's method of selection 
and breeding will prove him to be to the poultry industry 
what Burbank is to horticulture, Edison is to the electrical 
world, or Darwin or Mendel to the breeding kingdom. That 
the mastery of this method of selection and breeding, and 
sensibly applying the principles revealed herein, will mean 
much to the poultry industry, is our honest belief. 

American School of Poultry Husbandry. 

Leavenworth, Kansas. 



FOREWORD. 



The writer's introduction into poultry-keeping was in the 
city of Boston, Massachusetts, in the autumn of 1857. By 
the spring of '68 I had a flock of nearly 400 birds, among them 
a lot of the best Single Comb White Leghorns that I could 
find. I went in person to New York city to get them. My 
friends thought such extensive poultry-keeping the limit of 
folly, and freely remarked that I was going crazy. In those 
days, eggs were almost worthless during the spring and sum- 
mer months, but would often sell for fifty cents per dozen 
in the winter. This set me to thinking that perhaps it 
might be possible to increase the egg-yield in the winter and 
by so doing make the fad a better paying proposition. 
Through my experiments I found that all hens were not alike ; 
that some would be very good table fowl and poor layers, 
others would be very good layers and poor table fowl, while 
still other hens would be very fair table fowl and very fair 
layers. At this time we had all the old-fashioned breeds 
we could get, and discarded them all for the Single Comb 
White and Brown Leghorns. I had decided that knowl- 
edge was of commercial value only when applied, and having 
a working knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the 
hen, I decided to try to turn the same to a commercial ac- 
count, and in a couple of years had evolved what is now known 
as the "Walter Hogan System," which consists in ascertain- 
ing the value of a hen for the purpose you desire by the 
relative thickness of and distance apart of the pelvic bones. 
Before 1873 I had communicated this discovery to some of 
my friends under promise of secrecy. One of them, Albert 
Brown, once a well-known banker, of Amesbury, Massachu- 
setts, and O. H. Farrar, of the same place, an overseer in 
the Hamilton Mills, and a light Brahma specialist. i\.fter 
using the above so-called "system" for a number of years, 
I developed a new method, w^hich I have taught in part pri- 
vately for some years, and which I now introduce to the public 
under the title of "The Call of the Hen; or. The Science 
of Selecting and Breeding Poultry." 

(8) 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 9 

My friends early prophesied that my penchant for in- 
vention would land me in the poor-house in my old age. So 
by some occult inspiration I was induced to abstain from 
publishing any part of my discoveries until 1904, when, by 
the advice of Ex-Congressman Haldor E. Boen, of Minne- 
sota, to whom I had confided my poultry secrets some years 
previous, I decided to publish only my first discovery, known 
as the "Walter Hogan System" (which will be found in the 
latter part of this work), after the same had been tested at 
the Minnesota State Experimental Station by Professor 
Hoverstadt, the superintendent of the station. However, 
before taking any steps to bring this matter before the public, 
I wrote to some thirty or more poultry judges, who were 
supposed to be selected as judges to officiate at the coming 
poultry show to be held in Buffalo during the exhibition at 
that place in 1901, asking them if they knew of any way 
to tell when a pullet was about to lay. I thought that if 
they did not know that much of the laying proposition, I 
would be safe in going ahead with publishing my secrets. 
The letters I received were left in Minnesota when I came 
to California shortly before the earthquake in 1906, so I 
cannot name the judges at present, but they will remember 
me as the proprietor of the Fergus Falls Woolen Mills; and 
I must say they replied in a very courteous manner, saying 
there was no way except the general appearance of the bird, 
as to its maturity of form, redness of comb and wattles, 
singing, looking for nest, etc. One only of the number 
charged me one dollar for this information. 

Failing health obliged me to dispose of my manufactur- 
ing business and retire to the farm, and it was in the spring 
of 1905 before I published my "Walter Hogan System," 
when it appeared in a number of poultry papers. (See 
Reliable Poultry Journal, March, 1905.) I did not copy- 
right the work at that time, although my experience in me- 
chanical inventions had taught me that I should have done 
so, and the following August imitations began to appear, 
until in 1912 a number of different parties in the United 
States and foreign countries were claiming authorship and 
selling it under the same or different titles. 

My years of research and expense brought me no finan- 
cial returns, and in the spring of 1906 I left Minnesota for 



10 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

California, a physical and financial wreck. After having 
regained my health, I began here at Petaluma to build up 
the same kind of a flock of layers that I had done in previous 
years, with the idea of publishing my entire work when I 
should have bred up a strain of 200-egg hens and better. 

After I removed to California, Professor M . E. Jaffa, 
of the University of California, became interested in the 
matter, and, at the request of the Petaluma Poultry Associa- 
tion, had the discovery tested at the California Poultry Ex- 
perimental Station for two years, and continued for two 
years longer for the purpose of determining the value of 
four-year-old hens as layers, as it is outlined in this book 
in the chapter relating to the selection of the best layers in 
a flock. 

It was also tested in New Zealand by D. D. Hyde, 
chief poultry expert for the New Zealand Government, 
and Prof. Brown, of the New Zealand Poultry Experiment 
Station. I have repeatedly been requested by my friends 
in different parts of the world to publish the full matter in 
book form, but poor health and lack of sufficient funds have 
prevented me from doing so until now. As this work will 
be copyrighted, I do not anticipate the literary pirates will 
raid it as they have my former work. In justice to the 
poultry fraternity, I want to say that while I have been 
and am now a member of the American Poultry Association, 
and have raised poultry fifty-six years, and now raise them 
by the thousand, I have never in the past classed myself 
as a ''poultryman" in the strict sense of the word. Neither 
do I claim that I am the only one who has discovered the 
facts set forth in this book. I only know that I have never 
seen them in print before. I know what the results of fol- 
lowing this method have been with me, and I feel safe in 
assuming that the things I have discovered have not been 
known. Hundreds have known me as an inventor and woolen 
manufacturer where one would know me as a "poultry crank;" 
and the only apology I have for offering this book to the pub- 
lic in a field already crowded with poultry literature is the 
earnest solicitation of my friends. ~ 

Walter Hogan. 

Petaluma, CaL, July 7, 1912. 



The Call of the Hen; or, the Science 
of Selecting- and Breeding- Poultry 

By WALTER HOGAN. 
CHAPTER L 



The Underlying Principles Which Govern the Selection 

AND Breeding of Poultry Are Capacity, Condition, 

Type, Constitutional Vigor, and Prepotency. 

In the winter of 1910 I received a letter from a woman 
in Oregon, which read as follows: 

"Dear Sir — My husband is a machinist. He is getting 
old and his health is failing. We have both worked hard all 
our lives, and have saved enough to buy a small place in the 
country. We can no longer do hard work, and in looking 
for some light occupation that would bring weekly returns, 
we have looked favorably on the poultry business. We have 
kept a small flock of hens on a town lot for a number of years, 
and think we have done well with them. We also take four 
poultry papers, but each one tells a different story, and we 
cannot decide what to do. We have been years accumulat- 
ing our little savings, and if we should lose them, we would 
have no resources left for our old age. I enclose two articles 
from the September (1910) number of the Pacific Fanciers' 
Monthly. One article gives me to understand that it is 
almost hopeless to think of making a living with hens, if we 
depend on selling eggs and poultry on the market. The 
other article holds out the promise of a possible income of a 
thousand dollars per year from 300 hens, if handled under 
right conditions. One means utter failure and bankruptcy 
in market eggs and poultry, and the other means the fullest 
measure of success. Both of these articles are in the same 
number and one follows the other on the same page. How 
can you reconcile these two conflicting opinions?" 

(The articles follow.) 

(11) 



12 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

"A Common Question Wisely Answered. 
''By George Scott. 

''Can a living be made from poultry? Probably there 
is no one who has attained distinction in the avicultural 
arena to whom this question has not been put hundreds of 
times ; and it is a question of perennial interest to the poultry- 
keeping public. There are many people who will tell you 
that a living, and a good living, can be made from poultry- 
keeping alone, and as proof of their statement will point out 
the numerous men whose names are household words in 
the fancy. On the other hand, a vast majority will niost 
emphatically give utterance to statements calculated to deter 
any poultry-keeping aspirant, and give weight to their con- 
tention by citing hundreds of cases where men have tried and 
failed. Truly the mass of evidence appears to be with the 
latter belief, for it is an indubitable fact that for every per- 
son who succeeds in this business a hundred fail. But, 
looking at the matter from a logical point of view, the fact 
that a minority rely on poultry for their daily bread is ample 
evidence that it is quite possible to make a living out of 
poultry-keeping, and the abnormal number of failures merely 
proves that the business is a difficult one. 

"The fact that a man who has failed in some other busi- 
ness takes up poultry-keeping with a like result in no sense 
proves that poultry-keeping does not pay; it is only what 
could be expected, and any experienced aviculturist would 
have prophesied such a result. It is, however, useless to 
explain such things to the man who is contemplating start- 
ing a poultry farm. To suggest that he is unfit for the task 
would be taken by him as an insult, for the public, in its ig- 
norance, has conceived the idea that poultry-management is 
the simplest work that anyone can think of — in fact, I ques- 
tion whether an outsider considers it to be work at all. 

"Such a hold has this belief obtained on the man in the 
street that it almost amounts to a superstition, and until 
the fallacy is exploded the number of the unsuccessful will 
be constantly increased. The public, apparently, cannot 
understand the difference between keeping a few fowls as a 
paying hobby and managing a poultry farm as an enormous 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 13 

one, and that the minor difficulties to be met with in the former 
case are increased a thousand fold in the latter. 

"Probably there is no other business which calls for so 
many qualifications as that of the poultry-farmer, and to say 
that the man who has been successful in any other walk in 
life is totally unfitted for this business, though somewhat 
exaggerated, will give the tyro some idea of what is wanted. 
An intimate detailed knowledge of poultry-management, an , 
unlimited reserve of perseverance, determination, and resource, 
a genuine love for fowls, the capacity for hard, continuous 
work for seven days a week, combined with business knowl- 
edge and thrifty management, are all essential, and will, 
with ordinary luck, lead one to the desired goal. 

"I am very dubious as to whether a living can be made 
from utility poultry-keeping, pure and simple — that is to 
say, by selling eggs and birds solely for edible purposes. A 
profit can undoubtedly be made, but it is so infinitesimal that 
the income derived from this source alone would, I am afraid, 
scarcely suffice for the needs of the most parsimonious. If 
it is decided to specialize in utility points, pure-bred stock 
must be kept of the popular varieties, and eggs for hatching, 
day-old chicks, and stock birds must be sold. This will 
make all the difference, and once a connection has been worked 
up, there is no reason why the business should not pay, and 
pay well. 

"The breeding of exhibition birds is, without doubt, the 
most profitable branch, and when once a name has been 
made, stock and eggs can be disposed of at most remunerative 
prices. Success, however, cannot be attained at once; it 
is often the work of years; and many breeders never rise 
from the ranks of mediocrity. Moreover, much capital is 
required to start an exhibition poultry farm, and one's ex- 
penses incurred in the management are infinitely heavier 
than in the case where utility points are the only consider- 
ation. 

"I would not advise anyone unversed in poultry-culture 
to give up a situation, however poor, in order to go in for 
poultry-keeping as a means of earning a livelihood. To 
think of such a thing is foolish in the extreme, but for any- 
one to burn one's boats behind one in this way would be 
suicidal. What I would suggest to poultry-keeping aspirants 



14 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

(and I believe the number of these reaches well into four 
figures) is that they should keep as many fowls as they can 
attend to properly in their spare hours, and see what profits 
they can make from the birds. Above all, they must find 
out if they have a genuine love for the work, for without 
this nothing can be done. When a name has been made 
as a breeder of good stock, then, and then only, is it time 
for the amateur to consider the advisability of adopting 
poultry-keeping as a business; and long before this point is 
reached the glamor of the idea may have faded, for the life 
of a poultry-keeper is, contrary to popular belief, far from 
being a bed of roses. Practically all the men who are to-day 
.making a living from poultry commenced keeping fowls 
as a hobby, and the knowledge and experience which they 
gained in this way enabled them to found the establishments 
which are to-day of world-wide reputation. 

"To those who are qualified for the work poultry-keeping 
offers a good living; but to the idle, the thriftless or the 
pleasure-seekers of this holiday-making age it offers more 
desolate prospects than any other trade or profession. In 
this business nothing but dogged determination will enable 
the beginner to climb the rugged, precipitous path to success, 
and anyone who is lacking in this essential, or who is afraid 
of hard, continuous work, will save himself the obloquy of 
failure by choosing some other field in which to exercise his 
powers." 

"The Good Little Hen. 

"What She Will Do for You if You Will Treat Her Right. 

''By Mrs. A. Basley.- 

"There is money in poultry for the man and especially 
for the woman that will dig it out. This I can assure the 
Fanciers' Monthly readers, if they are in doubt. 

" 'Dig it out' seems a curious way of putting it. 
When I spent a summer in a big mining camp in Colorado, 
I noticed a great many holes in the sides of the mountains. 
'Yes,' said a miner, 'and not 5 per cent of those holes have 
paid.' It was appalling to think of the thousands of dollars 
lost in those holes. 'Give me a hundred hens,' said I. The 
money it took to dig one of those unprofitable holes would 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 15 

have started a fine poultry plant and the good little hens 
would have brought in a living for their owners. 

"There is money in poultry! Every inch of a hen is 
valuable. I would like to give you one of the values of the 
hen and what it costs to keep her. 

"First, there are the eggs she will lay, if properly fed 
and treated. Twelve dozen eggs per year is the average, 
although I personally know poultry plants now being operated 
in Southern California where the output, as shown by care- 
fully kept records, is sixteen dozen per year. The average 
price at the Arlington Egg Ranch for the past year was 31 
cents a dozen, because the proprietor arranged to have his 
hens laying when eggs cost the most, in the fall and winter 
months. 

"Sixteen dozen eggs at 31 cents a dozen means each hen 
brings in $4.96 in eggs, whilst her food costs 10 cents per 
month or $1.20 per year, leaving $3.76 as profit for eggs. 

"There is still another source of profit in the hen, and 
that is in the droppings. At several of the experiment 
stations it has been found that a hen voids about 100 pounds 
of droppings per year. These droppings have been analyzed 
and show a value as fertilizer of from 30 to 35 cents per hen ; 
the value being controlled not only by the market demand, 
but also by the quality ; the droppings being richer as fertilizer 
where the food was rich in protein and where the hens are 
fed the 'full and plenty' method. 

" 'What do you do with the hen droppings?' I asked a 
beginner. 'Throw them away; glad to get rid of them,' was 
the reply. At the rate of $10.00 per ton, that was a waste 
of 50 cents per hen. Two of our neighbors had lawns which 
were in so bad a condition from the soil being worn out that 
they were on the point of having them dug out and new soil 
put in and the whole re-sowed, when they thought of their hen 
droppings; these they had spread over the lawns and then 
raked off again and the lawns well watered. In a month's 
time those lawns looked beautiful — better far than if they 
had been re-made, and at far less cost. 

When I lived in the Eastern States, my window garden 
was the envy and admiration of everyone that passed; there 
were flowers galore all through the dark winter gloom and 
cold frosty days. I loved my plants, took good care of them 



16 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

in every way, but the secret of the wonderful blossoms was 
hen manure! 

"Once a month I half-filled a bucket with hen droppings, 
poured a kettleful of boiling water on it, filling the bucket 
with the water, stirred it with a stick, let it settle and cool, 
and watered the plants with that liquid. I found that hen 
droppings enrich the ground for almost all plants better than 
anything; roses are the only exception that I have found, 
they doing much better when fertilized with well-rotted cow 
manure. 

"But to return to our hen. She gives 26 pounds' weight 
of eggs, or sixteen dozen, valued at $4.96; she also gives 100 
pounds of valuable fertilizer, worth here $10 a ton, or 50 
cents per hen, which brings the amount of her earnings to 
$5.40, and at the end of the year we still have the hen to eat 
or sell at market value, about 75 cents or $1.00. If we eat 
her, we have the feathers, which are easily saved and can be 
sold or made into pillows, the bones pounded up and fed to 
the other fowls. 

"Poultry pays, and pays better than any other legitimate 
business, considering the amount invested. Why then are 
there any failures? I will tell you why: The failures are 
not the fault of the good little hen. She will always do her 
duty; she will always respond to the treatment she gets. 
The failures are the people who care for the hen. The owners 
are the failures, and not the fowls. 

"Success is what we all want to attain in whatever we 
undertake; and, 'lest we forget' some of the things which 
lead to success, may I repeat that there are three essentials 
to egg-production? These are: Comfort, Exercise, and 
Proper Food. I would like to review these." 



I wrote the lady that both of these articles were right. 
Let us see if we can prove the statement. If the reader has 
ever had any experience with cattle, he knows it would be 
sheer folly to buy a herd of Polled Angus or Herefords for a 
dairy farm, for they have been bred for years for beef, and 
practically everything fed to them goes to meat; while it 
would be just as foolish to buy a herd of Jersey cows and ex- 
pect to make a living from them raising beef, as they have 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 17 

been bred for years for butter-fat, and practically everything 
fed to them goes to milk and cream. If the reader's experi- 
ence has been with horses, he is aware that a man engaged 
in teaming would not select the trotting type of horse, neither 
would a turfman put his money on an 1800-pound Clyde 
horse, if the balance of the field were trotting horses; that 
would not be horse sense. Now, the same comparison holds 
good in the poultry field, except with this difference, that the 
egg type and meat type in poultry have never been segregated 
into different breeds, and each breed bred for a number of years 
along the line it was intended for — the egg type bred for 
eggs alone, and all birds inclined to meat-production discarded 
— both male and female, and the meat type bred for meat, 
without regard to eggs, except enough to perpetuate the 
species, just as the typical butter cattle and typical beef 
cattle have been bred. 

I have seen a great many cases like the first-mentioned 
article, where a person would go into the poultry business 
and get started with stock that was of the meat type, and, 
not knowing any better, would think that all poultry was the 
same as his, and the only way any money could be made in 
the business was to sell fancy birds and eggs at fancy prices. 
Now, these people are not to blame for what they do not 
know. They think their hens are as good layers as any 
other hens, and they have no way of knowing any better. 

I have also seen a great many cases like Mrs. Basley 
writes of, except the profits were not so large, owing to different 
environment, I suppose. These people had the same breed 
of hens as the parties before mentioned, but they were for- 
tunate in getting the egg type, and they made money with 
their hens. Everyone thinks every other person's hens are 
the same as theirs, if they are of the same breed, and that 
is the reason there are so many different conflicting state- 
ments in the poultry papers, and not because the writers 
are not intelligent or not truthful, as some suppose. From a 
scientific point of view, and apart from the fancy, and as 
far as the knowledge of meat and egg production is concerned, 
the poultry business is in its infancy, and the people who 
write for the poultry papers give their experience for your 
benefit. That is all. 

p H— 2 



18 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

To further impress on your mind the difference between 
poultry and other stock, I would say that while some individual 
cattle of the various beef breeds will not be a paying propo- 
sition, the only safe plan is to select your feeders from the 
beef family; and while some Jersey cows will not pay as 
butter-producers, still, as a breed, they are among the best 
for that purpose. Though some trotting horses do not make 
good, as a rule they will carry you over the road in good time, 
and though some draft-type teams are not sure pullers, they 
are a success as a class. 

The same general laws apply to all animal nature. The 
hen is no exception, only in this respect: that while cattle 
and horses have been bred so that as a rule novices can 
select the type they wish by selecting the breed, hens have 
not been bred that way. We have what pi^port to be egg 
breeds and dual-purpose breeds. The first are supposed to 
be a paying proposition as a whole for egg-production. The 
latter are supposed to be a paying proposition for both eggs 
and meat combined; some breeders claiming that their breed 
will give you the very largest number of eggs per year and the 
greatest weight of flesh all in one bird. Now, these claims 
are misleading. It is an utter physical impossibility for any 
hen to be a typical egg type and at the same time be a typical 
meat type. It is against the laws of Nature. We have the 
Leghorns, Minorcas, Spanish, and a number of other Med- 
iterranean breeds that are called "egg type." While the 
truth is, that while they have been bred as best the breeders 
knew how along the lines of egg-production, you can find 
vast numbers that will not lay eggs enough to pay for the feed 
they eat. Great numbers in some flocks have all the char- 
acteristics of the beef type, and will lay about three or four 
dozen eggs per year and sometimes not over a dozen. The 
Plymouth Rocks, Orpingtons, Wyandottes, and Langshans 
are classed as "dual-purpose" breeds, which means hens that 
will lay a medium number of eggs and give a good large 
carcass for the table; and while this is true in a majority of 
cases, I have seen numerous specimens that laid over two 
hundred and fifty eggs per year, while some would lay little 
or nothing. In fact, while I have bred Leghorns for more 
than forty years, and they are my favorite breed, I must 
say I have found as good layers (within a few eggs) in all 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 19 

the other breeds I have named as I have found in the Leg- 
horns, and I have also found as poor layers among the Leg- 
horns as I have found in any other breed. As far as the 
number of eggs is concerned, as a rule, I find that the breed 
of the hen has nothing to do with it whatever. 

I do not wish to be considered dogmatic in anything I 
may say in this work. I am merely giving the opinions I 
have formed by observation and experiment during a period 
of fifty-six years that I have kept poultry, not to make all the 
money I could out of them, but to learn all I possibly could 
about them — in fact, until a few years ago I never kept 
poultry for the money there was in it. The keeping of hens 
has been a passion with me. I have spent years of time 
and thousands of dollars, but I think I have found something 
that will be of inestimable value to the world, and I have 
found it not because I was any better fitted for the work 
than thousands of other lovers of poultry, but because I stuck 
everlastingly to it, without any regard as to whether it paid 
me in dollars or not. 

As previously stated, it is not a matter of breed as to 
whether a hen is a good layer or not. It is a matter of type, 
capacity, and constitutional vigor. First, in almost all breeds 
there is a type of hen where everything she consumes over 
bodily maintenance goes to the production of eggs. This we 
call the "typical egg type." Second, there is a type where 
about half the food consumed over maintenance goes to the 
production of eggs, the balance over bodily maintenance 
going to make flesh. This is called the "dual-purpose type," 
as this hen performs two functions that are considered neces- 
sary in the economy of Nature: the production of eggs 
and the production of meat on a commercial scale. Third, 
there is a type where everything consumed over bodily 
maintenance goes to flesh. This hen we call the "meat 
type," for the reason that practically all her energy is used 
in producing meat. 

Now, here we have three distinct types of fowl in almost 
every breed. We have divided these three types into six 
separate classes for each type : 

No. 1 of the typical egg type hen may lay about 36 eggs ; 

No. 2 may lay about 96 eggs; 

No. 3 may lay about 180 eggs; 



20 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

No. 4 may lay about 220 eggs; 

No. 5 may lay about 250 eggs ; 

No. 6 may lay about 280 eggs; 

All this is in their first laying year. 

No. 1 of the dual-purpose type hen may lay about 20 eggs ; 

No. 2 may lay about 50 eggs; 

No. 3 may lay about 96 eggs; 

No. 4 may lay about 115 eggs; 

No. 5 may lay about 130 eggs; 

No. 6 may lay about 145 eggs. 
This in their first laying year. 

No. 1 of the typical meat type may lay from nothing to 
a dozen eggs. Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 may lay from nothing to a 
couple of dozen eggs, and, as a rule, will lay these in the spring 
when the crows lay. The reason is very plain, if we stop to 
think that the same natural laws govern all animal (and 
human) nature. 

The egg type hen is of a nervous temperament (that is 
why she is usually free from body lice, if she has a suitable 
place to dust in), and all she eats over bodily maintenance 
goes to the production of eggs. The hen of the sanguine 
temperament is a little more beefy, and lays less eggs; the 
hen of the bilious temperament is more beefy still, and lays 
still less eggs, while the hen of the lymphatic temperament 
will lay little or nothing, almost ever\^thing she eats going to 
flesh and fat. (The reader need borrow no trouble over the 
meaning of the terms "nervous," "sanguine," "bilious," and 
"lymphatic" temperaments, if he is not familiar with them, as 
the charts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 will specify matters so that any- 
one can understand the matter of selecting the different 
grades of hens with very little study and trouble.) 

We have said that w^e have divided the three grades, the 
egg type, dual-purpose type, and meat type, into six separate 
classes. There is, in fact, a seventh class, but it is so rare 
that we will not take it into consideration here, but will 
explain it later. But we have, in fact, made ninety classes 
of these six for convenience in selection, and the process could 
be extended indefinitely, but it would serve no needful pur- 
pose. 

Now, when we consider all these different grades in the 
hens of every breed, and the further fact that there is the 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 21 

same number of different grades in the male bird, is it any 
wonder that there is so much difference of opinion in regard 
to the profits derived from poultry-keeping? We have visited 
hundreds of poultry plants that numbered from about fifty 
to two thousand or more hens each. We have seen some 
flocks of five hundred that would not pay for the feed they 
consumed, for the simple reason that they were not the right 
type of hens. They were fine-looking, healthy meat-pro- 
ducers, but there was no earthly way possible to feed them 
that would induce them to lay eggs at any time except a few 
months in the spring when the crows laid, and eggs were 
cheap. The owners of some of these flocks were bright, 
brainy, vigorous business men, who tried every method that 
usage and science suggested, and fought with sheer despera- 
tion to make a success -of the business, but went down in 
failure; while their next neighbor, a little pin-headed, con- 
ceited specimen of humanity, strutting around like a peacock, 
w^as getting rich with the same breed of hens. "Luck," do 
you say? Yes, it is mostly a matter of chance. The first 
man was unfortunate in that he got his eggs or breeding-pens 
from stock such as that described in the first article of the 
Fanciers' Monthly, while the last man got his eggs or breeding- 
pens from stock described by Mrs. Basley in the second 
article. 

We once visited a gentleman w^ho had a very extensive 
poultry plant. He had a large number of different breeds 
yarded off in finely appointed yards, with help and financial 
means to satisfy every need of a poultry plant. His pens 
of Rocks, Orpingtons, and Langshans were remarkable layers, 
while his Cochins, Houdans, and Polish were very good layers. 
After looking over the last-named birds, he remarked: "I 
have 500 Leghorn hens that are eighteen months old which I 
wash you would look at." After we had looked at them a few 
minutes, asked, "What do you think of them as layers?" I 
replied that if he would tell me w^hich pen laid an average of 
all the pens, I would tell him in a few minutes. "That pen 
there," said he, pointing to No. 20, "has laid an average num- 
ber of all the eggs laid." After examining the hens, I told 
him I would not take them as a gift, if I had to keep them 
one year. "Why?" he asked. "Because," I replied, "after 
keeping them a year and selling them, the price I would re- 



22 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

ceive for the hens and the eggs they would lay would not 
pay for their feed. I cannot see why you keep them." The 
next evening he said to me, "Do you see that man moving 
into the place over yonder? Well, I have sold those Leghorn 
hens to that newcomer for $500." "Is this an exceptional 
case?" you ask. I have only this to say: that all the David 
Harums are not in the horse business, neither can I see why 
a poultryman should be his brother's keeper, wh.en it is not 
the rule in other lines of business. It seems to me the 
better way is to study poultry from a scientific point of view, 
so that you can judge the value of a hen for the purpose you 
want her for, and not have to depend on other people's 
opinions. 

By studying this book carefully you will be able to tell 
approximately the number of eggs a hen is capable of laying 
in a year; you can also select the hens that will be the best 
for breeding purposes, for eggs, for meat, or as a dual-purpose 
hen — that is, a hen that will give you the largest number of 
eggs possible with the largest possible amaunt of meat when 
you wish to sell her, or the hen that will produce the best 
broilers, regardless of any one particular breed. Some hens 
will be very good layers, some very good meat-producers, some 
very good dual-purpose type, and some very fine fancy birds, 
and you can mate them with the same type of male bird and 
breed from these birds for a few generations, and their progeny 
will degenerate. The chickens from the hens and cockerels or 
cock birds of the 200-egg type may lay less each generation, 
until in eight or ten generations they may not lay enough to 
pay for their feed. The progeny from some of the best meat 
and dual-purpose type matings will sometimes degenerate just 
as the egg type, until they are practically worthless as profit- 
able meat-producers. The chicks from the fancy mating may 
be a failure from the fancier's point of view. 

This is the rock that some old poultry-breeders are 
sometimes wrecked upon. One case of national interest was 
the case of the late lamented Professor Go well, of the State 
of Maine Experiment Station. He had started some years 
before to breed up a heavy-laying strain by using the trap- 
nest, selecting eggs for hatching from hens that were his 
best layers and conformed as near as possible to the standard, 
and using cockerels hatched from these eggs to mate 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 23 

with his hens. Now this was all right as far as it went, 
but there was something that the Professor had not taken 
into consideration. He had procured the best birds he could 
find, had trap-nested them to discover the hens that were 
the most prolific layers, had selected the eggs from what he 
had considered to be the best hens for the purpose (and few 
men had better judgment in this respect). He had mated 
up the best-looking cockerels from these best eggs from the 
best-laying hens, and according to all apparent precedents 
was he not justified in expecting an increase each year in egg- 
production? But what were the results? If reports are true, 
there was a decrease in egg-production, and what do you 
suppose was the cause? There must be some cause. There 
is a cause for every effect. Sometimes we think things just 
happen; that there is no natural law that governs them; 
that in this or that case it was all chance; that it may not 
have happened to another person, and will not be likely to 
happen to us again, and so we dismiss the matter only to 
have the same thing repeat itself, until we either solve the 
problem or meet our doom through it. And thereby hangs 
a tale. 

Some time in the summer of 1905 I received a letter from 
a doctor in one of the suburbs of Boston, asking me what I 
would charge to visit Orono, Maine, and have a talk with 
Professor Gowell, and incidentally to drop a few remarks 
that might be of some help to him in his investigations. I 
had never met the Professor, but I replied to the Doctor that 
I would go (I was then living in Minnesota), and would 
pay my own expenses, as I wished to visit Boston, my birth- 
place, and where I first started in poultry-keeping in 1857, 
and it would be a small matter to go from there to Orono, 
Maine, . where Prpfessor Gowell was conducting his experi- 
ments. While I was waiting for a reply, I decided that as 
Professor Gowell had put so much time and thought into 
the trap-nest proposition and had built so much on that one 
thing, and that as he could get results from it (only it was 
a waste of time), that in this first visit to him I would offer 
only one suggestion and that was the secret of selecting the 
birds, both male and female, that would be sure to breed 
progeny that would be better than their parents along the 
lines in which the parents excelled, or, in other words, trans- 



24 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

mit their predominating characteristics to their offspring; 
that is, if the cockerel or cock bird and hens were typical 
meat type birds, the progeny would excel along these lines. 
Some of them would excel their parents in the production 
of meat; they would be hardier, better feeders, would digest 
and assimilate their food better, and consequently arrive at 
maturity sooner, and be of better flavor and more tender, 
and by breeding these birds along the lines laid down by 
I. K. Felch, of Natick, Massachusetts ("line breeding" he 
calls it), they would improve each season, so that in a num- 
ber of years there would be a great difference in their favor 
over their parents. If the pen was a fancy proposition and 
had been bred some years for fancy points, the progeny 
would show a decided improvement in a few years over their 
parents. If the pen were the typical egg type, the progeny 
would show an increase over their parents in stamina and 
egg-production. I would also have shown him where the 
birds he was breeding from were deficient in the faculty that 
governs fecundity, or, in other words, which controls the 
function of reproduction. 

Whittier, in "Maud MuUer," says, "For of all sad words 
of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: it might have been." 
Yes, "it might have been." Professor Go well might have 
lived to give many more years of aid to the poultry- world 
and his tragic death been prevented ; but he wrote the Doctor 
that he did not want me to come. He seemed determined 
to solve the problem himself, and no doubt would have done 
so if he had been as care-free from routine duties as a man 
in his position should have been; and I charge his untimely 
end to society. The men and women in our public institu- 
tions who are giving their lives for the benefit of humanity 
are not appreciated at their true value. We demand the 
full limit of routine duties, forgetting that it is impossible 
for a tired body to furnish suflftcient nutriment to the brain 
to solve these intricate problems that are continually con- 
fronting them, and while we cause them to suffer mentally 
and physically individually, we cause ourselves to suffer 
collectively, by our parsimonious treatment of them. 






THE CALL OF THE HEN. 25 



CHAPTER II. 



Preliminary Remarks, Giving Some Advice to the 

Reader. 

The writer is not one of the long-winded kind. I don't 
Hke to talk a long time in order to say a few words, or write 
a dozen pages where one will do as well. I believe in handing 
out the chunks of gold with as little dross as possible. I 
think the reader would rather receive the information I have 
to offer in one page than in a dozen; that he would rather 
discover the facts in a few feet than to be obliged to hunt 
over a hundred acres of literary space for the same informa- 
tion. For that reason I will make this work as brief as possible. 
I will be aided in my effort to do so by the fact that the theories 
offered in this work have been more or less demonstrated 
by the Government Experimental Stations of New Zealand 
and the States of Minnesota and California ; also in the 
poultry plants of the five State hospitals (which contain 
thousands of hens) in the State of California, under the 
auspices of the State Board of Health and the physicians 
of the different hospitals. It might not be a difficult matter 
to mislead a few poultry men on a subject that deals wholly 
with physiology and anatomy, but it would be absurd to think 
for a moment that one could deceive all the physicians in 
five State insane hospitals. It seems a man who would still 
doubt would believe the world is flat, especially when he 
learns that a member of the State Board of Health told the 
writer that there was a difference of $1,500 in favor of using 
this system, in one year, in one of the hospitals alone. 

We commence in this chapter the unfolding of a method 
or test by which the reader can tell approximately the value 
of a hen and a male bird as a breeding proposition (and in 
the chapter on Breeding alone this book will be worth its 
weight in gold to the fanciers), an egg-producer or a meat- 
producer. It is my desire to make the facts contained in 
this book so clear and the tests so easy of application that 
anyone can become proficient in the use of them in a short 
time. Therefore I have prepared a series of illustrations 
showing numerous types and conditions of fowls, also various 



26 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

Other facts that may better be shown by pictures than by 
explanations alone. 

You will remember, no doubt, that you did not arrive at 
your present proficiency in reading in a day or two; that it 
took some little time, and there was a certain system or 
evolution in your study. You will find the same true of this 
method. There is a certain process that leads from one step 
to another, until you have covered the system, when by re- 
peated study and practice you will become proficient and ac- 
complish what at first seems impossible. It may seem an 
impossible task to handle and grade sixteen hundred hens in 
six hours, but the writer has done it. With sufficient help 
to hand me the hens, we graded (or, in other words, tested 
out) sixteen hundred hens in six hours in the State Hospital 
poultry yards at Ukiah, Mendocino County, California, in 
March, 1910. ''Not so bad for a semi-invalid of 62," we hear 
you say. Our reply is, "It's practice." You can do the same. 
Go through the movements with every hen you pick up each 
day, and in a short time what at first is difficult will appear 
quite easy. 

For some years previous to 1912 there was great activity 
in the poultry industry, there having been no lack of poultry 
papers, farm papers, and magazines that for a nominal sum 
would give tuition in poultry culture. The ease of getting a 
theoretical knowledge of the- business induced thousands to 
take it up who otherwise would not have thought of doing so. 
The apparent ease of conducting the business, the small 
amount of capital it was supposed to require, with the large 
and steady income it offered, were the will-o'-the-wisps that 
lured many to financial loss. I would warn my readers 
against rushing into the poultry business on a scale beyond 
their means without first obtaining a working knowledge of 
the same. With good stock, with the proper environment, a 
good market, and a working knowledge of the business, there 
is little danger of failure, if one is willing to do the work 
necessary on a poultry plant. It offers the most independent 
living for the smallest amount of capital of any business I 
know of. 

The requisites for success are the knowledge of how to 
be able to select the hen you need for any particular pur- 
pose, whether it is for eggs or for meat or fancy; whether 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 27 

the hen will be a paying proposition or not (this may depend 
on your market) ; whether she will be able to transmit her 
predominating characteristics to her offspring or not. Also 
you must be able to judge accurately the value of the male 
bird as to what you want him for and as to his ability to 
stamp his offspring with the desired qualities. All the above 
you can learn from this book. You should also know how 
to operate incubators; how to feed and care for little chicks; 
how your hen-houses should be built to suit your climate ; 
how your growing pullets should be fed and housed; and the 
best way to feed to get the most eggs at the smallest cost, 
and how to feed and mate to get fertile eggs and vigorous 
chicks. There are numerous books published on all of these 
latter subjects that you can buy from the publishers of any 
poultry paper; so we do not take up the matter in this work; 
we give only what you cannot get elsewhere. 

Following is a series of half-tones and explanations 
representing the method we have used in instructing hun- 
dreds of poultrymen and women in California and other 
States and the managers of poultry plants in a number of 
State institutions in the State of California. 

CHAPTER III. 



The Various Steps in the Application of the Method 
OF THE Selection for Egg-production. 

There are four characteristics that it is absolutely nec- 
essary for a hen to possess for the economical production of 
eggs or meat. The first is capacity, the second is condition, 
the third is type, and the fourth is constitutional vigor. The 
reader must bear the first three in mind in studying the next 
few chapters, as we will dispose of these before taking other 
matters into consideration. 

First. What Is Capacity? — Capacity means the ab- 
dominal capacity to consume and assimilate the amount of 
food necessary to produce the number of eggs or amount of 
meat necessary to make the individual hen under considera- 
tion a paying proposition. We measure the capacity of 
the hen by placing the hand across the abdomen between 



28 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

the end of the breast-bone, or keel, and the pelvic bones. 
The method will be shown in detail in Chapter IV. 

Second. Condition. — If the hen under consideration is 
an egg type, she must be kept in proper bodily condition by 
supplying her with the right quantity and quality of food 
that will furnish her with vitality material necessary to pro- 
duce the number of eggs required of her. If the hen is in 
good condition, the flesh on the breast will be plump or prac- 
tically flush with the breast-bone. .Any variation in that 
condition will be shown by a shrinking away of the flesh 
of the breast, and will be followed by a corresponding shrink- 
ing of the abdomen. We show this by illustration and 
example later. 

Third. Tjrpe. — She must be of a type that everything 
she consumes is used in producing the desired effect, whether 
it is meat, whether it is eggs, or whether it is the maximum 
amount of eggs and meat that a dual-purpose hen can pro- 
duce. According to our idea, the type of hen determines 
how she will dispose of the food she eats. The kind of type 
is shown by the relative thickness of the pelvic bones. The 
very thin bone indicates the egg type. As we pass into the 
dual-purpose and beef types we find the bones becoming 
thicker. We show these by illustrations and charts later. 

With the reader bearing the above three propositions in 
mind — namely. Capacity, Condition, and Type — we will pro- 
ceed to show how to judge the hen with the least amount of 
time and labor. 

Fig. 1 shows the interior of an open-front colony house, 
largely used around Petaluma., The roosts are connected to 
the house by hinges, so they can be hooked up out of the way 
while cleaning the house or examining the hens, as in the 
present case. These houses are usually about 8 feet wide and 
10 feet deep inside, with 4 feet posts and pitch roof. These 
houses are open front, with the exception of 18 inches on 
each side, as can be seen on one side, where hens are going 
out of the house into the catching-coop. When hens move 
too slow to suit, one or more persons (children will do) can 
take a grain sack by bottom side in one hand and top side 
in the other hand and go into the house holding sacks spread 
apart and moving gently close to the floor or ground and 
drive the hens into the catching-coop. When the coop is 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



29 




Fig. 1 — ^Showing hens in house. Note exit in the corner 
and catching crate placed just outside. They walk into this un- 
consciously, and this saves thero from excitement and rough hand- 
ling. As soon as the crate is filled the door is closed behind them. 

full, shut down the slide door on outside to prevent hens 
returning to the house. 

Some readers may have long houses, holding five hun- 
dred hens or more. In this case you will need a panel, run 
diagonally across the house to a point near the opening, 
where the hens go in and out of the house, as in Fig. 1V2- 
This panel can be as long as required for the width of the 
house and made in sections, if desired, and should be 6 feet 
or more high. 

Fig. 2 shows hens in the coop. When there are enough 
in, we shut down the slide door and proceed as in Fig. 3. 

Fig. 3. Note the slide door on top of the crate. We 
open this just enough to admit our arm while we grasp the 
hen firmly by both legs, so she can't twist around and injure 
herself. A slide door is better than a hinged door, as you 




Fig. IV2 — Showing 2-inch wire panel placed diagonally across 
house holding 2,000 hens. Panel frame and wire can be seen at 
left. This forces hens to go out at exit in the corner of house and 
they walk into the catching crate on the outside of the exit. 




Fig. 2 — Showing hens in catching-crate. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



31 




Fig. 3 — Showing how hens are taken out of catching-crate. 
If they are taken out in this manner be sure to grasp both legs 
firmly and be careful not to break wing or tail feathers. 

can open the former just enough to take out the hen without 
so much danger of any of the other hens escaping. Be careful 
not to break wings or tail feathers or to injure the hen. 

Fig. 4. Note how the right arm is held in Fig. 4. This 
is not the right way, but it is the way most persons hold 
the left arm when they receive their first lesson. Now, 
note how the left arm is held; this is the right position, and 
it is difficult for me to teach students to hold their arms 
this way. I have to drill them repeatedly before they will 
do so. The hand which holds the hen by the legs should 
be at the height of the hip; this enables you to use the other 
hand in examining the hen for capacity with greater speed 
and accuracy. 

Fig. 5 shows how the writer holds a bird to ascertain 
its capacity by holding it this way. After long practice, he 
is enabled to inspect one in a few seconds by having three 
parties to hand him the birds and to take them from him. 
A small, light hen or pullet is best to practice with. 




Fig. 4 — Showing right and ^^Tong way to hold arms. 




Fig. 5 — Showing how a hen may be held while testing capacity. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



33 




Fig. 6 — Shomng where the hen's head should be so she cannot 
see anything. 

Fig. 6 shows where the head of the bird should be. You 
will note that her eyes are covered up so she can't see, and 
that has a tendency to keep her quiet while you examine 
her. 

Fig. 7 gives an example of testing the capacity of a hen. 
The hand is placed on the abdomen between the two pelvic 
bones and the rear of the breast-bone; the left hand holding 
the legs is turned under enough to bring the thighs away from 
the point of the breast-bone, so that the thighs will not in- 
terfere with measuring the depth of the abdomen. The 
depth of the abdomen will vary with different hens; some 
will be one finger (a finger means the width of a finger the 
widest way; I have called it three-fourths of an inch) be- 
tween the two pelvic bones (sometimes called "lay" bones 
or "vent" bones) and the rear of the breast-bone. Some 

P H— 3 



34 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



hens will be two fingers between the two pelvic bones and 
the rear of the breast-bone, some will be three fingers, some 
will be four fingers, some will be five fingers, some will be six 
fingers, and occasionally one will be seven fingers between 
the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. The 
depth of the abdomen indicates the capacity or the ability 
of the bird to consume and assimilate food, and it applies 
to all breeds, except that, everything else being equal, the 
longer-bodied hen, having more room for the digestive ma- 
chinery, would have some advantage over the shorter-bodied 
hen. 




Fig. 7 — Showing how to test capacity. 

Fig. 8. This indicates how to hold a hen when you 
examine her for condition. This is one of the most difficult 
and serious problems a poultry man has to deal with. To 
illustrate, I will cite one case out of hundreds that have 
come under my observation. A gentleman wrote me to call 
on him, as he was having trouble with his hens. When I 
arrived at his place, he told me that w^hen he fed his hens 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



35 



well he got lots of eggs, but some of his hens died ; then when 
he did not feed them so well they did not lay so many eggs, 
but none of them died. He said he had repeated this a num- 
ber of times with the same results. He said the ones that 
died .were as fat as butter. I picked up one of the hens ; 
she was in prime condition for the market. I picked up 




Fig. 8— Showing how to test condition. The legs of the hen 
are drawn upward, so that you can see the breast. The condition 
is tested by placing the thumb and forefinger about 3^ inch from 



the front of the breast-bone, 
in detail. 



Figs. 20, 21, and 22 show the method 



another one; she was very thin. I examined all his hens. 
I found he had, like a great many poultrymen, three distinct 
types of hens: the egg type, the dual-purpose type, and the 
meat type. As he had fancy birds in all the different types, 
he did not want to dispose of any of his flock, so I segregated 
them into^lhree divisions: the egg type, the dual-purpose type, 
and the meat type. After that he fed the egg type all the 
grain they could clean up in the scratching-shed and kept a 



36 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



balance-ration of dry ground feed before them all the time. 
The dual-purpose hens were fed all the grain they could 
clean up in the scratching-shed, with a small amount of dry 
ground feed each day. The meat type hens were fed a 
smaller amount of grain in the scratching-shed, with a couple 
of feeds each week of dry ground mash — ^just enough to keep 
them in condition. After this he had no more trouble with 
his hens not laying in the proper season and dying from being 
too fat. He would occasionally pick up hens in the different 
pens and note their condition and feed them accordingly. 
He told me later that before he had taken the lessons he had 
been working completely in the dark, but now he under- 
stood the matter thoroughly and kniew what to do. 

Fig. 9. After examining the hen as in Fig. 8, place the 
hand as in Fig. 9, and hold right hand firmly enough to pre- 
vent her from slipping down. 




Fig. 9 — Showing one movement that has proved an aid in test- 
ing type. The right hand is placed under the breast of the hen 
to steady her while the legs are drawn downward to bring the hen 
into position so that she may be examined for type (as in cut 10). 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



37 



Fig. 10. Then move the left hand down, as in Fig. 10, 
and hold left hand firm enough to keep her in place while 
removing right hand. 

Type. 

Fig. 11. Now, brush feathers away from vent with back 
of hand and part the feathers near pelvic bones with fingers. 
Then grasp end of pelvic bone so that it comes flush with 
ouside of fingers, as in Figs. 11 and 24. This indicates the 
Type of the bird. Some will be one-sixteenth (Vie) of an 
inch thick, including the flank as held between the thumb 




Fig. 10 — Showing another movement that has proved an aid 
in testing type. The legs are drawn well under the hen, thus throw- 
ing the pelvic hones forward. The right hand is then removed 
and used to examine the thickness of the pelvic bones (Fig. 11). 

and forefinger, as seen in Figs. 11 and 24, and will vary all 
the way up to one and a quarter (IV4) inches, including 
bone, gristle, fat, and flank, as seen in Fig. 31. 

The reader is aware by this time that we are in the chapter 
pertaining to Type, the last of the three classes that it is 



38 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



necessary to divide poultry into in order to make a scientific 
classification to enable one to arrive at the approximate 
value of the "Individual Bird" as an Egg or as a Meat propo- 
sition (and without any regard as to its value as a breeder, 
which will be shown later). I wish to repeat here that Type 
is controlled wholly by temperament. We must select the 
temperament or combinations of temperaments that suit our 
purpose, and then, with the desired capacity and by scientific 
feeding, so as to keep the subject in proper condition, poultry- 




FiG. 11 — Shows method of testing type. The thumb and fore- 
finger are placed one on each side of the pelvic bone so that you 
may estimate the thickness of the same, including flesh, fat, gristle, 
etc. 



culture will become more of a science with the majority of 
poultrymen- than it is at present. In order to prepare the 
reader for what is to follow, I w411 divide poultry into three 
distinct classes as to temperaments. 

The hen that will produce the largest amount of eggs 
with the smallest amount of meat possible for her capacity 



THE GALL OF THE HEN. 39 

is of the nervous temperament. The hen which uses one- 
half of her vitaUty in producing eggs and the other half of 
her vitality in producing meat — in other words, the dual- 
purpose hen — is a combination of both the sanguine and 
bilious temperaments and is called "the hen with the sanguine- 
bilious temperament." The hen that produces the largest 
amount of flesh and the smallest amount of eggs consistent 
with her capacity is of the lymphatic temperament. 

In a fowl all the different temperaments and their differ- 
ent degrees of combinations are indicated by the pelvic 
bones In the horse they are indicated largely by the breed. 
The Arabian, the ideal running and trotting horse, is a good 
type of the nervous temperament, the coach horse is a good 
type of the sanguine-bilious temperament, and the Clyde is 
a good type of the lymphatic temperament. In cattle we 
have a good example , of the nervous temperament in the 
Jersey, and of the lymphatic in the beef family of Durham, 
also Hereford and Polled Angus, while the Holstein and 
Ayrshire cattle are good types of the sanguine-bilious com- 
bined . 

I have made this deviation so I could offer to my poultry 
friends this thought: that there are certain laws in Nature 
that have no regard for our theories, and the better we under- 
stand these laws, the less. liable we are to make mistakes. 

CHAPTER IV. 



Capacity. 



In the preceding chapters we have given the reader an 
idea of the method we use in judging the value of a hen for 
the purpose we wish her for. In the succeeding chapters we 
will explain the inethod in detail. 

First, we will take up "Capacity." 

Fig 12 shows a hen with only one finger capacity (^/4 
of an inch) between the two pelvic bones and the rear of the 
breast-bone. 

Fig. 13 show^s a hen with two fingers capacity (P/2 
inches) between the two pelvic bones and the rear of the 
breast-bone. 



40 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



Fig. 14 shows a hen with three fingers capacity (2V4 
inches) between the two pelvic bones and the rear of the 
breast-bone. 




Fig. 12 — One-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) This indicates a 
hen of very small capacity to consume and assimilate food. She 
never can be a large eater, hence of not much value. 



THE GALL OF THE HEN. 



41 



Fig. 15 shows a hen with four fingers capacity (3 inches) 
between the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 




Fig. 13 — Two-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) SUghtly larger 
capacity than the preceding, but still of relatively small ability to 
consume food. 



42 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



Fig. 16 shows a hen with five fingers capacity (8^/4 inches) 
between the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone. 




Fig. 14 — Three-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) Indicating very 
good ability to consume and assimilate food. We find hens that 
lay as high as 180 eggs in their first laying year in this class, de- 
pending on the type. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



43 



Fig. 17 shows a hen with six fingers capacity (41/2 inches) 
between the two pelvic bones and the rear of the breast-bone^ 




Fig. 15 — Four-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) A hen of varj^ 
large capacity to consume and assimilate food. We find 220-egg 
hens in this class, provided they have the right type. 



44 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



NOTE: The tests for type and capacity cannot be ap- 
plied to young pullets with any degree of accuracy. These 




Fig. 16 — Five-finger abdomen. (Capacitj'.) A hen of still 
larger ability to consume food than the preceding. We find 250- 
egg hens in this class, if of the right type. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



45 



tests cannot be properly made until the pullet has laid at 
least one clutch of eggs. A pullet must obtain her natural 
shape and be fully developed before you really know what 




Fig. 17 — Six-finger abdomen. (Capacity.) Indicating ex- 
tremely large capacity to consume and assimilate food. She may 
be a 280-egg type hen or a heavy beef type hen. 



46 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



she is. These two tests can best be made on yearly hens. 
This is where many poultrymen fail in making their tests 
and it is why many of them condemn this system. It is 
absolutely accurate in 99% of the cases if properly and 
sensibly applied. — Publishers. 



CHAPTER V. 



Condition. 

We next come to "Condition." 




Fig. 18 — Showing hen in very poor condition. The feathers 
being plucked away shows the actual condition of the flesh. We 
call a hen in this condition "three fingers out of condition," which 
indicates that her abdomen has shrunken up three fingers. If she 
now has a capacity of one finger, when in good condition she would 
be four fingers abdomen; if she has a capacity of two fingers now, 
she would have five fingers capacity when in good condition. 

Fig. 18 shows a hen in very poor condition. 

Fig. 19 shows a hen in perfect condition, as indicated by 
her full breast. 

Fig. 20 is somewhat thinner, as indicated by breast-bone. 
We call her one finger out of condition. 

The degrees of condition show the amount of shrinkage 
in abdominal depth. One finger out of condition show^s she 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



47 



has shrunken one finger in depth of abdomen; two fingers 
out of condition shows she has shrunken two fingers in depth 




Fig. 19 — Showing hen in good condition. You will note that 
the flesh is even with the breast-bone. This hen would show her 
normal abdominal depth when examined. 




Fig. 20 — Showing hen one finger out of condition. You will 
note that the flesh appears slightly shrunken away from the breast- 
bone. -When the thumb and forefinger are placed as in the cut, 
about y2 inch from the front of the breast-bone, the flesh will be 
below the breast-bone, as shown by the mark on finger in Fig. 23. 
This would indicate that the hen was one finger less capacity. If 
three fingers now, she would be four fingers capacity when in con- 
dition, etc. 



48 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



of abdomen; three fingers out of condition shows she has 
shrunken three fingers in depth of abdomen. 




Fig. 21 — Showing hen two fingers out of condition. The 
flesh is shrunken away from the breast-bone to about the depth 
indicated by the middle line on the finger in Fig. 23, which is about 
the middle of the first joint. This shows that she is two fingers 
less in abdominal depth than when in good condition. 

Fig. 21 is still thinner, as reader can see by the breast-bone. 
We call her two fingers out of condition. 





■ 


1 






^^^1 




^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 


1 ■ 


■ 




^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Hh^ 


^ 

i 


i 


^B^^<\^^_^f^i^^^^H^^^H 



Fig. 22 — Shomng hen three fingers out of condition. This 
hen would be three fingers less in abdominal depth than when in 
good condition. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



49 



Fig. 22 is still thinner. This we call three fingers out 
of condition, and is about as thin as a hen usually gets, if 
there is any chance for' her ever being of any use. 




Fig. 22a — This shows you just where to place your finger on 
the keel or breast-bone in order to measure or determine the con- 
dition of the hen. In order to properly determine this fact, place 
your finger about 1 inch back from the front point of the keel or 
breast-bone, as you see illustrated above. 

Fig. 23 shows about how the first joint of an index finger 
must be divided up to determine the three degrees of condi- 
tion The first joint of the index finger is divided into three 
parts, each line or division representing what we call "one 
finger" in measuring or determining condition. If a hen 
had a three-finger abdomen or capacity and was one finger 

p H— 4 



50 THE GALL OF THE HEN. 

out of condition, that would mean that she would have a 
four-finger abdomen or capacity if she was in condition. 



" Fig. 23 — Showing where the imaginary Hnes should be drawn 
on the first joint of the forefinger in order to judge the condition 
of the hen or pullet. 

CHAPTER VI. 



Type. 



We now come to "Type." This is indicated by the 
thickness of the pelvic bones, together with the flesh, fat, 
gristle, and cartilage on same. (See page 17.) 

Fig. 24 shows a hen whose pelvic bones are one-sixteenth 
(Vie) of an inch thick; that is about as thick as a piece of 
cardboard that paper boxes are made of, and the reader must 
bear in mind that the measurement of the pelvic bone does 
not mean the bone alone, with the skin, flesh, gristle, and fat 
scraped off, as some may suppose, but with all the above 
included. 

Fig. 25 shows a hen with pelvic bones one-eighth (Vs) 
of an inch thick. 

Fig. 26 shows a hen with pelvic bones one-quarter (V4) 
of an inch thick. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



51 



Fig. 27 shows a hen with pelvic bones three-eighths p/g) 
of an inch thick. 




Fig. 24 — Vie-ineh pelvie bone. Indicating a typical egg-type 
hen, which means that virtually all the food, she consumes above 
that necessary for bodily maintenance goes toward the production 
of eggs. If of one-finger abdomen, she would lay about 36 eggs 
in her first laying year; if of three-finger abdomen, she would lay 
about 180; and if of six-finger abdomen, she might lay 280 eggs 
in her first laying year. 




Fig. 25 — ^/s-inch pelvic bone; indicating egg type, but not so 
typical as the preceding. If of one-finger abdomen, she would lay 
about 32 eggs in her first laying year; if of three-finger abdomen, 
about 166 eggs; and if of six-finger abdomen, about 265 eggs in her 
first laying year. 




Fig. 26 — ^/i-incli pelvic bone; indicating a slightly more beefy- 
hen than the preceding types, but still of the egg type. If of one- 
finger abdomen, she would lay about 24 eggs in her first laying- 
year; if of three-finger abdomen, about 138 eggs; and if of six-finger 
abdomen, about 235 eggs in her first laying year. 




Fig. 27 — ^/s-inch pelvic bone; indicating that the hen uses a 
larger proport 'on of the food she consumes in making flesh and less 
in the production of eggs. A one-finger abdomen hen would lay 
about 16 eggs; a three-finger abdomen hen, about 110 eggs; and 
a six-finger abdomen hen, about 205 eggs in the first laying year. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



53 




Fig. 28 — Vz-inch pelvic bone; indicating a still more beefy 
hen than the preceding — that is, a still larger proportion of the food 
consumed is used to make flesh and less to produce eggs. If of 
one-finger abdomen, she would lay about 8 eggs; and if of three- 
finger abdomen, she would lay about 82 eggs; while if of six-finger 
abdomen, she would lay about 175 eggs in the first laying year. 




Fig. 29 — V4-inch pelvic bone. A pretty good specimen of the 
beef type. We find no two-finger abdomen hens that have pelvic 
bones so thick, because they cannot consume enough food with such 
pelvic bones. A two-finger abdomen hen is virtually a non-layer; 
a three-finger abdomen hen will lay about 24 eggs; and a six-finger 
abdomen hen will lay about 115 eggs in the first laying year. 



54 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 




Fig. 30 — l-inch pelvic bone. A very beefy type. Almost all 
the food consumed above that required for bodily maintenance 
is used in the making of flesh. We find them in the hens that have 
abdomens from four to six fingers deep. They lay very few eggs. 




Fig. 31 — IVi-inch pelvic bone. This indicates that the hen 
is of the typical beef type. She is an enormous feeder, hence onlj' 
found in hens of about six-finger capacity. She will lay practically 
no eggs. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



55 



Fig. 28 shows a hen with pelvic bones one-half (V2) of 
an inch thick. 

Fig. 29 shows a hen with pelvic bones three-quarters {^/^ 
of an inch thick. 

Fig. 30 shows a hen with pelvic bones one (1) inch thick. 

Fig. 31 shows a hen with pelvic bones one and one- 
quarter (IV4) inches thick. 




Fig. 32 — Crooked pelvic bone. "A, A," Position No. 1. 

Now, please bear in mind that everything shown and 
related here refers to Leghorns and applies to other breeds 
as well, only in a lesser degree — so small that it amounts to 
almost nothing, as I will show later. 

A, A, Fig. 32, shows the pelvic bones with flesh cleaned off. 

B, B, Fig. 33, shows the pelvic bones with flesh stripped off 
farther and painted black so they will show up better. You 
will notice that the pelvic bones in Fig. 32 and Fig. 33 are 



56 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



crooked. The majority of poultry have more or less crooked 
pelvic bones. Sometimes the bones come close together, 
which is an obstruction in laying, and should be bred away 
from as much as possible. 

Fig. 34 shows perfect pelvic bones. In this form they 
are very easy to take between the thumb and finger; also, 
when the hen wants to lay the vent has a chance to fall down 
between the. pelvic bones, which allows the egg to be de- 




FiG. 33 — Crooked pelvic bone, "B, B," Position Xo. 2. Hens 
with bones curved like this will lay about 20 per cent less than 
hens of the same type and capacity with straight pelvic bones, as 
in Fig. 34. 



livered without straining on the part of the hen. Not every 
poultryman, but every poultry woman has seen cases where 
a hen has gone on the nest and after a couple of hours com- 
menced to cackle her head off. Presently we Hear the w^hole 
flock take up the chorus, and going to see what the trouble 
is, we find the hens holding an "Old Maids' Convention" 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



0/ 



and declaring they will never lay another egg, it hurts them 
so much to do so On examining them, we find the pelvic 
bones so crooked they come together like the horns on a 
Jersey cow, and when the hens lay, instead of the vent drop- 
ping down between the pelvic bones, allowing the egg to be 
released in an easy manner in a few minutes after the hen 




Fig. 34 — Most perfect pelvic bones, "C, C." Hens with pelvic 
bones like this will lay about 20 per cent more than those having 
bones hke Fig. 33. 

goes on the nest, the egg is forced to be delivered between the 
pelvic bones and tail bone, thus prolonging the agony of the 
hen sometimes for hours, when, if she was built right, as in 
Fig. 34, she would be relieved of the egg without pain in a 
few minutes. And instead of wasting vitality in getting 
relieved of the egg, she would be rustling around for material 
to build another one, and thus add at least 20 per cent to 
her egg-producing value. This matter of crooked pelvic 
bones is more frequent in some breeds than in others, and is 



58 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

a serious matter that is very easily remedied by breeding 
only from birds with the straightest pelvic bones; especially 
looking after the male birds, as one male bird with crooked 
pelvic bones will transmit this defect to all of his daughters. 

When I came to Petaluma, I found whole flocks of 
thousands of hens with crooked bones; now they are very 
rare. The poultry-breeders soon caught on to my straight- 
and-thin-pelvic-bone idea; and I think the Society for the 
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals should recognize my services 
in relieving millions of hens of the agony of parturition. 

The reader will please bear in mind that Fig. 34 repre- 
sents 100 per cent pelvic bone and holds the same relation 
to pelvic bones in general that a bird that scores 100 in the 
show-room holds to all other high-class birds. 

A 250-egg type cock bird or cockerel with pelvic bones 
like Fig. 34 would be of inestimable value. The wTiter has 
cock birds like the above that he would not part with for any 
money, for the reason that it would take several years' breed- 
ing to produce their equals. 

If the reader has male birds whose pelvic bones are far 
enough apart that he can grasp the ends with thumb and finger 
when measuring the thickness, he should be satisfied until he 
can do better. > 

So long as the pelvic bones are comparatively straight 
after leaving the frame and do not curve abruptly toward 
the ends, the birds may be used as breeders, w^ith the assur- 
ance that some of the offspring will show a wonderful im- 
provement in this respect. Figs. 32, 33, and 34 are extreme 
cases. 

CHAPTER VII. 



The First Laying Year. 

What is meant by "the first laying year?" All old 
poultry men know what the above means, and I have no 
doubt some of my readers may be impatient with me for ex- 
plaining little things that are so familiar to them; but they 
will remember that poultry parlance is not all contained in 
the dictionary, and a great deal of the contents of this book 
may be Greek to the beginners in the poultry business who 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 59 

will read this work. For this reason I cannot be too plain 
in my language or too careful of details in explaining matters. 
The first laying year has nothing whatever to do with the age 
of a hen or pullet. I have had hens that had passed their 
first laying-year when they were sixteen months old. On 
the other hand, I have seen hens that were over four years 
old that had not commenced on their first laying year. The 
hen that had passed her first laying year when she was six- 
teen months old had commenced to lay when she was four 
months old, while the hens that were over four years old 
had never laid an egg. So the reader will see the first laying 
year commences with the first egg a pullet lays and ends 
one year from that date, when her second laying year com- 
mences. Some pullets will commence to lay at four months 
old, while others of exactly the same type, fed and cared 
for in the same manner, will not lay before they are eight 
months old, owing to different environment. Everything 
else being equal, poultry will develop faster on a warm, 
dry, sandy soil than they will on a black, damp, heavy soil; 
and they will mature much soqner in a good corn country, 
where it is warm in the shade and warm at night, than they 
will in a poor corn country, where it is cool at night and 
cool in the daytime in the shade. I have raised Leghorn 
pullets that were fully developed in size and form and laid 
a full-sized egg when they were four months old. 

It can be done in Massachusetts, New York, New Hamp- 
shire, and Minnesota, and in parts of California, where the 
nights are so warm that one can sleep comfortably under a 
sheet only ; but not where you have to cuddle under a lot of 
blankets on a summer night to keep warm. 

CHAPTER VHI. 



The Selection of Types. 

If the reader has practiced handling a hen as in Figs. 
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, we will proceed with a lesson in judging 
hens as to the number of eggs they w^ill lay their first laying 
year. 

We will look for a small hen to commence with, as she 
will be easier to handle. Having our hen, we will hold her as 



60 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

nearly as we can as in Fig. 5, and try to have her head as in 
Fig. 6, so she can see nothing. She will then be easier to 
handle. Place hand across her abdomen, as in Fig. 7. She 
may be a one-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 12. Then hold 

CHART 1. 

One-finger Abdomen. 

1 /i6 pelvic bone 36 eggs 

1 /s pelvic bone r 32 eggs 

^ /i6 pelvic bone 28 eggs 

V4 pelvic bone 24 eggs 

V16 pelvic bone 20 eggs 

^/s pelvic bone 16 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone 12 eggs 

V2 pelvic bone 8 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone 4 eggs 

^/s pelvic bone eggs 



her as in Fig. 8. Her breast may be as in Fig. 19; if so, she 
will be in good condition. Next go through movements as 
in Figs. 9 and 10 and hold her and examine her pelvic bone 
as in Fig. 11. Her pelvic bone may be one-sixteenth (^/le) 
of an inch thick, as in Fig. 24. Now look on Chart 1. Your 
hen is one-finger abdomen, in good condition, and her pelvic 
bone is one-sixteenth (Vie) of an inch thick. You will see 
that she is a 36-egg type hen. That means that if this hen 
is one of a large number on a commercial poultry plant, she 
is capable of laying three dozen eggs her first laying year, if 
she is fed and cared for properly, barring accidents and dis- 
ease. So we will call her a 36-egg type hen. 

We will drop this hen and take another from the crate 
and go through the same movements. Hold her as in Fig. 5 
or Fig. 7, with head as in Fig. 6 (she may also be a one-finger- 
abdomen hen, as in Fig. 12), then examine for condition, as 
in Fig. 8. Her condition may be good, as in Fig. 19; then 
hold as in Figs. 9 and 10, and measure thickness of pelvic 
bone, as in Fig. 11. Her pelvic bone may be three-eighths 
(^/s) of an inch thick, as in Fig. 27; in that case she would 
read like this: One-finger abdomen; good condition; three- 
eighths (^/s) pelvic bone. Now, look on Chart 1, and you 
will find she is a 16-egg type hen. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 61 

We will drop her and take another from the crate, and go 
through the same movements as before. This hen may be a 
one-finger-abdomen hen also, in good condition, with pelvic 
bone V2 inch thick, as in Fig. 28, and by consulting Chart 1 
we find she is an 8-egg type hen. 

We drop her and take another from the crate. She may 
be a hen with one-finger abdomen, as in Fig. 12. When we 
examine her condition, we find she is like Fig. 20, which 
indicates that she is one finger out of condition (the subject 
of ''Condition" is explained in Chapter V.); her pelvic bone 
may be ^/le of an inch thick, as in Fig. 24. This hen will 
read different from the other hen that was ^/le pelvic bone. 
This hen is out of condition. She may have been in condition 
up to a few weeks previous to our examination of her; the 
cause of her lack of condition may be improper food or care, 
or both, or it may be due to moulting, or she may have been 
broody. In any of these cases it would not be the hen's 
fault that she was out of condition, and she should not be 
held responsible for it. Her condition indicates that there 
is something wrong, and it's up to her owner to right the 
wrong, and when we do right the wrong, the hen will come 
back into condition, and her abdomen will then measure two 
fingers instead of one finger. We must, therefore, read her 
as a two-finger-abdomen hen, Vie-inch pelvic bone, when, 
by looking on Chart 2, we find her capacity would be 96 
eggs her first laying year, if we kept her in condition. 

We will drop her, and take another hen out of the crate. 
This hen may be a one-finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 12. 
When we examine her for condition, we find her as in Fig. 21; 
this indicates that she is two fingers out of condition; her 
pelvic bone may be Vie of an inch. Under her present 
condition, she might lay 36 eggs her first laying year, whereas, 
if she were kept in good condition, she would have a three- 
finger abdomen. She might lay 180 eggs. 

We will drop this hen and take up another one. She 
may be two fingers abdomen and her breast-bone may be as 
in Fig. 19. Her pelvic bone may be Vie of an inch. We 
would read her as a two-finger-abdomen hen in good condi- 
tion, pelvic bones Vie of ah inch thick. We will look on 
Chart 2 at ^/le-inch pelvic bone, and find she is a 96-egg 
type hen. 



62 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

We will drop her and take another from the crate. She 
may be two fingers abdomen and two fingers out of condition, 
as in Fig. 21, with pelvic bones V4 of an inch thick. She 
would read two fingers abdomen and two fingers out of condi- 

CHART 2. 

Two-finger Abdomen. 

V16 pelvic bone 96 eggs 

Vs pelvic bone 87 eggs 

V16 pelvic bone 78 eggs 

V4 pelvic bone 69 eggs 

V16 pelvic bone 60 eggs 

^ /s pelvic bone 51 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone 42 eggs 

111 pelvic bone 33 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone 24 eggs 

^/s pelvic bone 15 eggs 

^Vi6 pelvic bone 6 eggs 

^/4 pelvic bone eggs 

tion. She would be four fingers abdomen if in condition, and 
V4-inch pelvic bones. Being a four-finger-abdomen hen (if in 
condition), we will look on Chart 4 at ^/4-inch pelvic bone, 
and find she is a 175-egg type hen. We will drop her. 

Take another. She may be a two-finger-abdomen hen, 
as in Fig. 13, in good condition, as in Fig. 19, with pelvic 
bones ^j^ of an inch thick, as in Fig. 29. She would read 
two fingers abdomen; good condition; ^/4-inch pelvic bones. 
We will look on Chart 2 for ^/4-inch pelvic bone, and find 
this hen will lay nothing. This does not mean that she is 
an absolutely barren hen, that she will never lay an ^%% (I will 
explain this when we get to the six-finger-abdomen hen) ; 
she may lay a few, perhaps half a dozen, in the spring when 
the crows lay; but as a commerical proposition she will 
hav6 no more value than the hen that never laid an ^g^. 
Everything she consumes goes to the making of flesh, except 
what she uses in bodily maintenance. 

We will drop her and take another. She may be a three- 
finger-abdomen hen, as in Fig. 14. Her condition may be 
as in Fig. 19, with pelvic bones as in Fig. 24. She would read 
three fingers abdomen; in good condition; Vie-inch pelvic bone. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 63 

We look on Chart 3 at ^/le-inch pelvic bone, and find that 
this hen is a 180-egg type. 

CHART 3. 

Three-finger Abdomen. 

Vi6 pelvic bone 180 eggs 

Vs pelvic bone 166 eggs 

Vi6 pelvic bone 152 eggs 

V4 pelvic bone 138 eggs 

V16 pelvic bone. 124 eggs 

Vs pelvic bone 110 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone T 96 eggs 

V2 pelvic bone 82 eggs 

V16 pelvic bone 68 eggs 

Vs pelvic bone. 54 eggs 

^^ /16 pelvic bone _ 40 eggs 

^/4 pelvic bone 26 eggs 

^^ /16 pelvic bone 12 eggs 

^/s pelvic bone . eggs 

We will drop her and take another. She may be another 
three-finger-abdomen hen, like Fig. 14; she may be in good 
condition, like Fig. 19, and her pelvic bone may be Y2 inch 
thick, like Fig. 28. She would read three fingers abdomen; 
good condition ; V2-inch pelvic bone. We will look on Chart 3 
at V2-inch pelvic bone, and find this hen is an 82-egg type hen. 

We will' take another hen. - She may be a three-finger 
abdomen, like Fig. 14; she may be in good condition, like 
Fig. 19, and her pelvic bone may be ^ I ^ of an inch thick, as 
in Fig. 29. We will read her as a three-finger-abdomen hen; 
in good condition; ^/4-inch pelvic bone. We will look on 
Chart 3 at ^/4-inch pelvic bone, and find she is a 26-egg type 
hen. 

We will pick up another hen. She may be three-finger 
capacity, as in Fig. 14; she may be three fingers out of con- 
dition, as in Fig. 22, and her pelvic bones may be Vie of an 
inch thick, as in Fig. 24. We would read this hen as a three- 
finger abdomen; three fingers out of condition; and Vie-inch 
pelvic bone. When a hen is three fingers out of condition 
she is in a serious way. She may have been sitting on laying 
heavily and have been underfed. In either case, good care 



64 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

and plenty of the right kind of feed will bring her back into 
condition, provided she has not contracted tuberculosis (going 
light) or some other wasting disease. I will cite two cases 
out of hundreds that have come under my observation. 

One was a Barred Rock hen that I intended to set on 
duck eggs; she was six fingers abdomen, in good condition 
when I put her on the nest, and V4-inch pelvic bones; that 
indicated that she was a 235-egg type hen. She was on the 
nest two weeks before the duck eggs arrived and four weeks 
on the duck eggs, making six weeks setting. Owing to stress 
of other work, and being confined in an out-of-the-way 
place, she was somewhat neglected, and when the ducklings 
were hatched she was three fingers abdomen and three fingers 
out of condition, thus indicating a 138-egg type hen. Six 
weeks later she was laying, and had developed to six fingers 
abdomen, which was her normal condition. 

Another case was where a gentleman was in a class that 
took instructions. After the close of the meeting he brought 
a hen that was three fingers out of condition. He said she 
was his best hen, and asked me how many eggs she would lay. 
She was three fingers abdomen, three fingers out of condition, 
and Vi6-inch pelvic bone. Her head and actions indicated 
perfect health. I told him she might lay 180 eggs her first 
laying year, if her condition had been the same as it is at the 
present time; but if she was my hen I thought I might be 
able to make her lay 280 eggs. "You don't feed her half 
enough." He replied, "That is the only hen I have that 
lays a white egg. I got her when a pullet, before she com- 
menced to lay. She has been laying about a year and has 
laid 176 eggs. I had a small lot of hens at the time that were 
so fat they were dying, and I cut down their feed and have 
fed them sparingly ever since, so they would not get too fat 
and die." I went to his place, and found he had three types 
of hens: the typical meat type (one w4th pelvic bones iVs 
inches thick),. some with pelvic bones V2 inch thick, and this 
hen that laid the white eggs, whose pelvic bones were Vie 
of an inch thick. I told him to segregate his hens into three 
lots, and feed them according to their type. Give the egg- 
type hens all the grain they could clean up each day in the 
scratching-shed, with a dry balanced mash before them all 
the time; the dual-purpose hens should be fed all the grain 



THE GALL OF THE HEN. 65 

they wished to scratch for, with an occasional mash; and 
the beef-type hens should be fed what grain they could clean 
up in the scratching-shed in about an hour. The litter should 
be good and deep in all cases. I did not mention charcoal, 
grit, shells, and green stuff, as that is not my business. Every 
man who takes a poultry paper knows that part of the business, 
and every person who keeps poultry should take a poultry 
paper in order to keep posted on current poultry topics. 

The gentleman wrote me over a year later that he had 
succeeded in bringing the hen up to normal condition, as in 
Fig. 19, but after laying awhile she went back to five fingers 
abdomen and one finger out of condition, and had laid 238 
eggs her next laying year. 

We will now take another hen. She may be a four-finger 
abdomen, as in Fig. 15, in good condition, as in Fig. 19, 
and her pelvic bones may be ^/ae of an inch thick, as in Fig. 
24. She would read four fingers abdomen; good condition; 
Vi6-inch pelvic bone. If we consult Chart 4, we will find 
she is a 220-egg type hen. 

The next hen may be also, four fingers abdomen, as in 
Fig. 15, in good condition, as in Fig. 19, with pelvic bones 

CHART 4. 

Four-finger Abdomen. 

Vi6 pelvic bone 220 eggs 

Vs pelvic bone 205 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone. 190 eggs 

V4 pelvic bone 175 eggs 

V16 pelvic bone 160 eggs 

^ /s pelvic bone 145 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone 130 eggs 

V2 pelvic bone . 115 eggs 

V16 pelvic bone 100 eggs 

Vs pelvic bone 85 eggs 

^Vi6 pelvic bone 70 eggs 

V4 pelvic bone 55 eggs 

^^/i6 pelvic bone 40 eggs , 

^/g pelvic bone 25 eggs 

^Vi6 pelvic bone. . 40 eggs 

1-in. pelvic bone eggs 

p H— 5 



66 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

^/2 inch, as in Fig. 28. She would read four fingers abdomen; 
in good condition; V2-inch pelvic bones. We will see by 
Chart 4 that this is a 115-egg type hen. 

Our next hen may be a four-finger-abdomen hen; con- 
dition good; pelvic bones 1 inch thick. We would read her 
as a four-finger abdomen; condition good; pelvic bones 1 inch. 
If we look on Chart 4 at 1-inch pelvic bones, we will find 
this hen will lay approximately nothing. 

Our next hen may be a four-finger-abdomen hen, one 
finger out of condition, Vs-inch pelvic bone. She would in- 
dicate a 205-egg type hen under her present condition, but 
we would read her four fingers abdomen, one finger out of 
condition; that would mean a five-finger-abdomen hen if in 
condition, ^/s-inch pelvic bone. We look on Chart 5 at ^/s 
pelvic bone, and find she is a 235-egg type hen. 

Our next hen may be a five-finger-abdomen hen, as in 
Fig. 16; she may be in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and her 
pelvic bones may be Vie of an inch, as in Fig. 24. She will 
read five fingers abdomen; condition good; pelvic bones Vie 

CHART 5. 

Five-finger Abdomen. 

Vie pelvic bone .250 eggs 

^ /s pelvic bone 235 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone 220 eggs 

^/4 pelvic bone 205 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone 190 eggs 

^ /s pelvic bone 175 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone 160 eggs 

V2 pelvic bone 145 eggs 

^ /16 pelvic bone 130 eggs 

^/s pelvic bone 115 eggs 

^Vie pelvic bone 100 eggs 

^/4 pelvic bone 85 eggs 

^^/i6 pelvic bone 70 eggs 

^/s pelvic bone 55 eggs 

^^/i6 pelvic bone 40 eggs 

1-in. pelvic bone 25 eggs 

IVie pelvic bone 10 eggs 

1^ /s pelvic bone eggs 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 67 

inch. We look on Chart 5 at Vie pelvic bone, and find she 
is a 250-egg type hen. 

Our next hen may be a five-finger-abdomen hen, as in 
Fig. 16; she may be in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and her 
pelvic bones may be ^/g inch thick, as in Fig. 27. We would 
read her as five fingers abdomen; good condition, and ^/s-inch 
pelvic bones. Chart 5 would show us that she was a 175-egg 
type hen. 

The next hen may be a five-finger-abdomen hen; con- 
dition good; pelvic bones 1 inch thick. She would read five 
fingers abdomen; good condition; 1-inch pelvic bones. The 
chart would indicate that she was a 25-egg type hen. 

The next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen, as in 
Fig. 17; she may be in good condition, and her pelvic bones 
may be IJ^ inches thick as in Fig. 31. I hear the reader 
say," "What breed of a hen has pelvic bones as thick as that? 
or do you mean that both of her pelvic bones are IV4 inches 
thick, counting them both together?" No; I mean that each 
one of her pelvic bones is IV4 inches thick. Counting the 
bone, gristle, fat, and flesh (flank), both of the pelvic bones 
would be 2V2 inches thick. When we speak of pelvic bones 
being so and so thick, we always mean one of them. And as 
to breed, this hen is a Single Comb White Leghorn; she is the 
typical beef type. You will see by Chart 6 that she will lay 
practically nothing; and here I will explain this matter. 

A man once brought me a two-and-a-half-year-old hen 
that he had trap-nested for two years, and asked me to tell 
him how many eggs she had laid her first laying-year. I told 
him she had never laid an egg. Her abdomen was six fingers, 
she was in good condition, and her pelvic bones were 1^/4 
inches thick. 

CHART 6. 
Six-finger Abdomen. 

Nervous Temperament. 

V'i6 pelvic bone 280 eggs 

Vs pelvic bone 265 eggs 

V16 pelvic bone 250 eggs 

V4 pelvic bone 235 eggs 

V16 pelvic bone ; . . . . 220 eggs 



68 the call of the hen. 

Sanguine Temperament. 

^ /s pelvic bone 205 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone 190 eggs 

.V2 pelvic bone 175 eggs 

^/i6 pelvic bone 160 eggs 

^/s pelvic bone^ 145 eggs 

Bilious Temperament. 

^Vie pelvic bone 130 eggs 

^/4 pelvic bone 115 eggs 

^^/i6 pelvic bone. . . : 100 eggs 

^/s pelvic bone. . 85 eggs 

^^/i6 pelvic bone 70 eggs 

Lymphatic Temperament. . 

1-in. pelvic bone 55 eggs 

IV16 pelvic bone. 40 eggs 

iVs pelvic bone 25 eggs 

l^/i6 pelvic bone 10 eggs 

IV4 pelvic bone eggs 

He cautioned me to be careful, as he had always trap-nested 
his hens, and his record showed how many eggs they had laid. 
I replied, *Tf that is the case, her record shows that she has 
never laid an egg.'' He said no more then, but brought me 
another hen, asking me how many she would lay. I examined 
her for capacity. I found she was a six-finger-abdomen hen; 
her condition was good; her pelvic bones were Vie of an inch 
thick; they were both alike as to thickness. I questioned 
him as to how he had fed her, and if she had been sick her 
first laying year. As he is one of the best breeders in the 
United States, I could depend on him knowing what he was 
talking about. I asked him then to take off his hat. I could 
see by the shape of his head he was a strictly honest man. I 
then told him that I had never raised that breed of hens, 
but if it was a Leghorn, it might lay 280 eggs its first year, 
and if a Plymouth Rock, it might lay 270. He said her trap- 
nested record showed she laid 276 eggs from the time she 
commenced to lay in her pullet year until she had laid one 
year. "That's all right," I replied; "but what about the first 
hen we examined?" "We have never found any in the trap- 
nest from her," he said, "but she might be in the habit of 



THE GALL OF THE HEN. 69 

laying in the yard." And as he was offered $1,000 for her, 
he was very anxious to get some chickens from her. I explained 
to him that while most typical beef hens could be made to 
lay a very small number of eggs in the spring when the crows 
laid, by feeding them a little lean meat and shrunken wheat 
and bran on a grass plot of white clover (if the blossoms of 
the white clover are clipped off), that his hen could not be 
made to lay, as she was a barren hen, as indicated by the 
rigid cord that connected both of the pelvic bones together, 
thus indicating that Nature never intended her to lay. I 
could name a number of professors and physicians that have 
told me they have discovered the same condition after they 
had taken my lessons. 

The reader will please bear in mind that the two pelvic 
bones of a hen are not always of the same thickness. Some 
hens may have one pelvic bone thicker than the other; when 
this is the case, add the two together and half of the number 
will be the right thickness to judge by. For instance, if one 
pelvic bone was Vs of an inch and the other one was V4 of an 
inch, the added thickness would be ^ /% of an inch; dividing 
this would give you ^/le of an inch as the thickness of one 
pelvic bone. Where one bone is thicker than the other, 
the thinnest one is on the left side of the hen. 

Our next hen may be another six-finger-abdomen hen, as 
in Fig. 17, she may be in good condition, as in Fig. 19, and 
her pelvic bones may be ^/g of an inch thick, as in Fig. 25; 
she would be a 265-egg type hen. 

Our next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen in good 
condition; pelvic bones ^/s inch; she would read six fingers 
abdomen; good condition; pelvic bones ^/g of an inch. By 
consulting Chart 6, we will find this is a 205-egg type hen. 

Our next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen, in good 
condition; }/2-inQh pelvic bones; this hen will be a 175-egg 
type hen. 

Our next hen may be a six-finger-abdomen hen, in good 
condition; pelvic bones 1 inch. We look on Chart 6, and 
find that 1-inch pelvic bones indicate the 55-egg type hen. 

Our next hen may be a four-finger-abdomen hen ; she may 
be two fingers out of condition, as in Fig. 21, and her pelvic 
bones may be Vie of an inch thick. We would*read her as 
four fingers abdomen ; two fingers out of condition ; this would 



70 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

make her a six-finger-abdomen hen if in condition. We look 
on Chart 6 at Vie-inch pelvic bone, and find our last hen is a 
280-egg type hen, if in condition, and it is up to us to put 
her in condition and keep her there as nearly as possible. 

I will admit it is a hard proposition to keep the non- 
setting typical-egg type hen in condition, but the man that 
comes the nearest doing so is the best feeder. I will have 
more to say in regard to the matter of condition in the chapter 
on Judging Utility Fowls at the Poultry Shows. This work 
is a matter of line upon line, and I must necessarily repeat 
the same matter in some respects time after time. But as 
this is an educational more than an entertaining proposition, 
I hope that my readers will bear with me. 

As I have said before, there are three types of hens. The 
hen listed on Chart 1 as Vie-inch pelvic bone is a typical 
egg-type hen, because all she consumes over bodily main- 
tenance goes to the production of eggs. The hen listed as 
^/s-inch pelvic bone is a dual-purpbse hen; half of her vitality 
is used in producing eggs and half in producing meat. The 
hen listed as Vs-inch is a typical meat-type hen; all she 
consumes goes to the production of meat, except what she 
uses in bodily maintenance. The hen listed as ^/le-inch pelvic 
bone on Chart 2 is a typical egg-type hen; the hen listed as 
^/g-inch pelvic bone on same chart is a dual-purpose hen; 
and the one listed as ^/4-inch pelvic bones is a typical meat- 
type hen; the same rule follows in all the charts. All the 
hens listed as ^/le-inch pelvic bone are typical egg-type 
hens, and they can't be made to pay as a meat proposition. 
The hens listed in the center of each chart are the dual-pur- 
pose hens; they can be used as an egg and as a meat proposi- 
tion. The hens listed on the bottom of each chart are the 
meat-type hens. Nature has fitted them for the production 
of flesh, and there is no human energy that can change them 
to a paying egg proposition. 

Between the above three distinct types there are com- 
binations of each adjoining type. This allows sufficient 
latitude for the preference of each individual breeder. A 
person can breed the typical egg-type hen and cock bird with 
pelvic bones Vie of an inch thick. If he thinks this type 
is too deliJate, he can breed from the ^/le-inch pelvic bone 
stock; this is my favorite type; the hen of this type is better 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 71 

able to withstand the vicissitudes of the poultry-yard than 
her finer-bred sisters. I will have more to say along this 
line in the chapter on Broilers. I think we have given suffi- 
cient examples in Chapters III., IV., V., VI. and VII. to enable 
the reader to examine a hen so he may be able to arrive 
at her approximate value for the purpose he wishes to use 
her for. 

In a previous chapter we have said there is occasionally 
found a hen seven fingers abdomen. If the reader finds one, 
he can score her by Chart 6 and add 15 eggs to the number 
indicated. For instance, if the hen is in good condition and 
measures seven fingers abdomen and her pelvic bones are ^/g 
inch thick. Chart 6 would indicate she is a 205-egg type 
bird; we then add 15 eggs to the 205, which gives the hen 
220-egg capacity. If she is five fingers abdomen and two 
fingers out of condition, we call her seven fingers abdomen, 
and proceed as above, which gives us the same results. 

There are two other matters I wish to call the attention 
of the reader to in this place. One is, that I have found hens 
occasionally that laid a great' deal better by the trap-nest 
than they scored by the Hogan test, but it was owing to a 
mistake made in measuring their abdomens, owing to the rear 
of the breast-bone turning up, sometimes almost an inch over 
normal shape, thus indicating a smaller abdomen than really 
was the case. The other matter is a more serious one — in 
fact, very serious in some flocks. It is the bagging down of 
the abdomen over the rear of the breast-bone. Every hen 
used in the breeding-pen should be examined for this defect, 
for if one of them is bred from, she is almost sure to transmit 
her weak ovarian system to her offspring. Some of these 
hens will make remarkable egg records for a year or so, then 
will never lay another egg; and again, the eggs are liable to 
be very infertile and more or less thin-shelled ; and if you have 
great numbers of hens, you can hardly tell when these hens 
stop laying for good, unless you trap-nest them, as their pelvic 
bones do not close up as readily as hens in normal condition. 

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in this 
case, as it is very easy to prevent all this trouble. I meet 
hundreds of the above hens in my visits to poultry plants, 
but never have a case in my yards. I examine all my pullets 
when about a year old for possible breeders. If a hen satisfies 



72 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

me as to Capacity, Type, and Prepotency, I then hold her as 
if I were testing her for capacity, except that I hold her by 
the right leg only. I then lay my hand on her breast, so 
that it (my hand) will conform to her shape, and draw it 
slowly along her breast-bone (or keel) from front to rear. 
When my hand reaches the rear, if I feel the slightest indica- 
tion of her abdomen dropping the least bit below the rear 
of the breast-bone, I reject the hen as a breeder, and thereby 
save myself a world of trouble in the future. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Prepotency. 

We will take up in this chapter Prepotency, the science 
of breeding poultry, so that we can breed with a definite 
knowledge of what we are doing, and not leave it to intuition 
or chance. It is an old saying that "like begets like;" this 
seems to be true in some cases, but seems not to be true in 
other cases. Students of human nature can readily see where 
it has apparently failed. Some children will resemble and 
act like one parent and some will resemble and act like the 
other parent; then again, some children will be like neither 
of the parents. Breeders of horses and cattle are well aware 
of the variations in offspring from the type and character- 
istics of sire and dam. It is more through persistency in 
breeding than the general knowledge of any scientific prin- 
ciple that we have succeeded in producing the grand types 
of animals we see at our State fairs. The breeding of poultry 
is no exception to the above rule. While some breeders have 
good success in breeding for the desired type of bird, whether 
for fancy, for eggs, or for flesh, others will have very poor 
success. 

The purpose of this chapter is to explain to the. breeder 
who has had poor success a method that will enable him to 
breed with the full understanding as to what he is doing. It 
is a well-known fact among the clothing trade that if a woolen 
manufacturer has a sample of cloth presented to him, he can 
manufacture thousands of yards that will be an exact dupli- 
cate of the sample. The same is true in other industries. 
But suppose the reader gives an order to one of our well- 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 73 

known poultry-breeders for 1,000 pullets, to be delivered at 
four months old, these pullets "to be housed, fed, and cared 
for as the breeder designates, and to approximately lay a 
certain number of eggs their first laying year; how many 
breeders do you suppose could fill the order? Until a ma- 
jority of them can do so the poultry industry will not be on 
a business basis, but will be more or less of a gamble. 

I have said that seemingly like does not beget like in 
some cases. We will take, for instance, a hen that is five 
fingers abdomen, in good condition, ^/4-inch pelvic bones. 
She will scale up as a 205-egg type hen. We will make up 
a pen of these hens with a 205-egg type cockerel or cock 
bird; we raise 100 pullets from this mating and they may 
scale 175-egg type. We then say, "Like does not produce 
like." Here is where we make a mistake. In one sense we 
are right, in another we are wrong. Nature makes no mis- 
takes. We have mated 205-egg type male and female, and 
we get as a result 175-egg-type product. That's as plain 
as the nose on one's face, and we throw up our hands in despair 
and say, "It's all luck and chance." Another party mates 
up the same type of birds and gets a lot of pullets that aver- 
age 210 eggs their first laying year; still another party mates 
up the same type of birds and does not get a chick. 

The reader may smile, but this is no dream. A number 
of such cases have come under my observation. One case 
was that of a professor in one of the Southern California 
public institutions. He had a pen of twelve Black Minorcas, 
headed by a splendid-looking cock bird; also a pen of twelve 
Andalusians. He said there was something peculiar about 
these hens, and he wanted to know if I could detect it. I 
tested all the Andalusians, and told him they should average 
140 eggs their first laying year, and I would expect twelve 
eggs out of every thirteen to be fertile. After testing the 
Minorcas, I told him they would average about 160-egg type, 
but if they were mine, I would not set any of their eggs while 
they were mated to the present cock bird, because I would 
not expect them to hatch, and if they did hatch, they would 
be degenerates. He said, "This is the second season I have 
bred from the birds; I always get good hatches from the 
Andalusians; but, although I see the rooster serve the hens, 



74 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

I have never been able to hatch a chicken from the Minorca 
pen." I rephed, "He serves the hens out of sympathy." 

Another case was a Barred Rock hen, the only one a 
neighbor had in a small flock of Houdans. He called me 
one day, saying he had a remarkable pullet at his place, and 
he wanted me to call and tell him how many eggs she would 
lay her first laying year. She had been laying two months, 
and he was keeping her record. I went with him, tested 
the hen, and told him she might lay 250 eggs, but I did not 
think that any of them would hatch. After her first laying 
year was up, he showed me her record. She had laid 258 
eggs, and although he had a good Barred Rock cock bird 
with her, and had set a number of settings under hens, he 
failed to hatch a single chick. I could cite a great number 
of such cases. 

In the first of these cases the fault was with the male 
bird; in the last case the fault was with the hen; in both 
cases the trouble was caused by a lack of prepotency (amative- 
ness), and not through any defect in the anatomy of the birds. 
Everything in the universe is governed by certain immutable 
laws. If we understand these laws and can discover a way 
to control them, we may be able to use them to our advantage. 
Does the reader ever stop to consider these matters? What, 
in your opinion, is the greatest effort of Nature? The writer 
thinks it is the effort to reproduce the species in all their 
different forms of animate and inanimate life. If the case 
were otherwise, this earth would be barren of grass and 
shrubs, of flowers and fruits, and of every living, moving 
thing on land and in the sea. What a desolate old world 
this would be with only bare dirt and rocks and water! And 
when we consider what a wonderful thing life is, can we 
doubt that Nature has made some extraordinary provisions 
for controlling its inception? In the wild state the survival 
of the fittest prevented degeneracy of the species, but under 
domestication birds cannot follow their instincts; and their 
owners should be familiar with Nature's laws in order to be 
able to breed intelligently. 

When the writer was twelve years of age he took up the 
study of human nature, and later had help from that great 
teacher, Professor O. S. Fowler. Years of practice in dis- 
secting and in anatomy and in the study of the skulls of 



THE GALL OF THE HEN. 75 

animals and birds gave me the opportunity to study the 
x:onstruction of the different skulls and classify them as to 
the known habits of the birds or animals under consideration. 
The knowledge gained in this way was of inestimable value 
in later research in the selection and breeding of poultry. I 
am positive that without this early training I never could have 
accomplished what I have. 

After raising my first lot of Leghorns in 1869, I decided 
to dispose of all breeds but the Leghorns and Light Brahmas.- 
I said I would raise Leghorns for eggs and Brahmas for meat. 
Up to that time I had not paid much attention to the individual 
laying qualities of the birds. Experience had taught me that 
the Light Brahma, when fed right and of the right age, made 
a delicious table-fowl, and I was led to believe the Leghorns 
were all great layers. That was a good many years ago; 
and we have made wonderful discoveries and progress in 
science and the arts since that time. The reader can imagine 
my surprise when I found by experience that some of my 
Leghorns laid very few eggs arid laid them only in the spring 
months; others laid large numbers and laid late in the fall 
and early winter. In those days we had no cold-storage 
plants, and while eggs were very cheap in the summer, they 
were very dear in the winter, and I decided to experiment 
with my Leghorns, with a view to getting more eggs in the 
winter. After a few years of study and experiment, I mated 
the best egg- type birds and from some pens got good results, 
from other pens not so good, and from still others very poor 
results. My previous studies in anatomy had enabled me 
to select the matings from birds that were all of the same type, 
and I expected to raise a lot of poultry that would be dupli- 
cates of their parents, as far as their egg-laying qualities 
were concerned. But after numerous experiments in mating 
the 180-egg type cock bird with 180-egg type hens, I found I 
could not depend on getting definite results. 

Some are born rich, some are born handsome, and some 
are born lucky. The writer was born with none of these 
gifts, but with a combination of faculties that compelled to 
invention, to wander and toil and delve in the fields, the by- 
ways, and the mines of the mysterious. These researches, 
with the aid received by studying the pioneers in the same 
lines of investigation, led to the discovery, as the writer 



76 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

thinks, of the fundamental principle that underlies the re- 
production of the species. After a number of matings that 
were more or less discouraging failures, I decided to look to 
the brain of the bird as the seat of the cause of a great many 
of the variations between the characteristics of the offspring 
and those of the parents. I had previously demonstrated 
by experiment that environment had an influence on the shap- 
ing of the skull of the birds. By focusing on this subject 
the skull-knowledge I had gained in the previous nine years, 
I was led to think that brain governed most of the functions 
of the body, and if so, why not the reproductive function? 
I reasoned that as I had mated up several pens of the same 
type of hens with the same type of male birds, and that as 
there was no difference in their temperaments, that the hens 
all looked alike, all weighed alike, and were all in the same 
condition — or, in other words, they were all in perfect condi- 
tion (to be more explicit, the hens were three fingers abdomen, 
pelvic bone ^/le of an inch thick; all hens were in good con- 
dition; the cock birds were two-finger abdomens, in normal 
condition, and pelvic bones Vie of an inch think; all hens 
were alike and all cock birds were alike, and all were about 
a year old) ; that there must be something apart from the 
anatomy and physiology of the hen that governed or in some 
measure controlled the reproductive functions. As I had 
exhausted all my resources in the above lines, I was very 
reluctantly obliged to enter a new field of research — the field 
of Phrenology. I killed the cock birds that had given us 
the best results, boiled their skulls until free of flesh, and 
found them as in No. 1, Fig. 35. The skulls of the cock 
birds that give the next best results were like No. 2, Fig. 
35, and the skulls of the cock birds that gave the poorest 
results were like No. 4, Fig. 35. 

The arrows A, B, C, and D show the base of the brain. 
If A were continued upward, it would pass through the pro- 
jection ^/4 of an inch from the end; if B were continued, it 
would pass through the projection about ^/g of an inch from 
the end; while C would be at the extreme end of the pro- 
jection, and D would pass outside the skull. The part of 
the skull where the arrows 1, 2, 3, 4 point contains the rear 
lobe of the brain, and examination will show that the develop- 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



77 




Fig. 35 — ^Three degrees of amativeness (otherwise called "prepo- 
tency"). 

ment of- this portion of the brain corresponds to the shape of 
the skull at this point. 



78 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

And right h^e is where we were on the point of the 
second great secret in breeding that would verify the saying 
that "Like begets hke." The first discovery was, that if we 
wished to raise pullets that would be good layers, we would 
have to mate good-laying hens with the same type of male 
bird, and not with the meat type — that is, the male birds 
would have to be of the same temperament, of the same 
anatomy, and of the same physiology as the hen. I found 
that if I had a hen that laid 180 eggs by the trap-nest, and if I 
wanted to raise a lot of pullets that would average 180 eggs, 
I could not depend on the trap-nest to aid me any farther 
than to tell me the number of eggs a hen laid, what particular 
eggs she laid, and the progeny of each hen, both male and 
female. I also found great variations in type in the mature 
cockerels from each individual hen, which we considered was 
due to the difference in type of the male bird and the differ- 
ence in vitality of one or both birds at different times during 
the breeding season; sometimes the hen, at other times the 
cock bird, transmitting their characteristics. When I was 
assured of this through numerous experiments, I reasoned 
that my failures were because the male birds were of a differ- 
ent type from the hens, and when I had demonstrated that 
the male birds were of a different physiology by practice 
and scientific measures, and mated accordingly, I flattered 
myself with the assurance that I had discovered all that w^as 
necessary in order to breed poultry intelligentl3\ But after 
more experiments I was not wholly satisfied with results; 
and as I had adopted the motto, "Like begets like," I reasoned 
that although the birds we had rnated were alike, as far as 
we could see, the remaining difference must be some place 
where I had failed to look for it. My knowledge of the 
different variations in form of the skulls of animals and 
birds of the same breed, together with the knowledge I 
possessed of human skulls, led me to investigate the head as 
the only remaining factor in the problem. When I reduced 
this proposition to a method, and when I was able to measure 
its potentiality, then I assembled the hens and cock birds, 
mating the 180-egg type hens and the 180-egg type cock 
birds, each bird with the same degree of prepotency. Then, 
and not until then, had I ever knowingly mated like to like. 
For years, like many others, I thought I had mated males 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 79 

to like females, but I was mistaken. And here is where I 
discovered my second great secret. After this I mated like 
to like more intellingently, and the results were more satis- 
factory. 

I consider the selecting of the male birds for mating along 
anatomical and physiological lines, together with the proper 
understanding and use of the faculty that governs the repro- 
ductive function, as the greatest discoveries ever made in the 
poultry industry. 

The reader may think there is very little difference in the 
skulls in Fig. 35. If you add an inch to the length of a man's 
legs, it does not seem to make much difference in his height, 
but if you add an inch to the end of his nose, it would make 
a great difference in his looks. I found this expansion on the 
back of the skull corresponded to the faculty of amativeness 
in the human family. I found that when it was large in both 
male and female the parents passessed the ability to transmit 
their predominating characteristics to their offspring. If the 
parents were fancy birds, their progeny would in some cases 
excel their parents in feather, vigor, and other good qualities. 
If the parents were of the egg type, some of the chicks would 
be as good and some better layers and more vigorous than 
the parents; if of the meat type, the progeny would be of 
a stronger constitution, of a quicker growth, and assimilate 
their food better — in a word, if both parents have this fac- 
ulty (called "prepotency" by some) large, the chicks will be 
more likely to be equal to, and some will excel, their parents 
along the lines in which the parents predominate. If the 
parents have the faculty small, the chicks will not be so 
good as the parent stock, but will degenerate along the lines 
that the parents excel in. If a hen is a 200-egg type and she 
has this faculty small, she will be just as valuable as an egg- 
producer as if she had the faculty large, but she will be of no 
value as a breeder; she will be an old maid from choice, and 
her eggs will not be fertile, if she has the faculty small enough. 
If the male bird has it small, his eggs will not hatch well, and 
if small, they will not hatch at all. I have found a few cases 
where the cock bird had the faculty of prepotency (ama- 
tiveness) large and failed to fertilize the eggs, but the cases 
were very rare, and I attribute it to weakened or diseased 



It 



80 



THE GALL OF THE HEN. 



nerves; as, for instance, the nerves of the teeth or sciatic 
nerve in the human being. 




Fi.G. 36 — Holding hen ready to put in sack. 

Fig. 36 shows how to hold a hen before putting her in a 
sack to examine her for prepotency. 




Fig. 37 — Holding legs with right hand and gathering sack 
around legs with left hand. 

Fig. 37 shows how to put her in the sack, holding legs 
with right hand, with back of hen against bottom of sack, 
and gathering sack around legs with left hand. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



81 




Fig. 38 — Tying sack around legs so hen cannot move while 
examining her for prepotency. This method of holding the bird 
is only necessary while you are learning. If there is someone to 
hold the hen for you, it would be quicker. When you become 
skillful, you can hold the bird as in Fig. 43. 

Fig. 38 shows tying sack around legs so that she cannot 
move while examining her for prepotency. (Cut a little off 
of the corner of the sack — ^just enough to get her head through. 
Hen in Fig. 38 is too far out of the sack.) 

The best way for a beginner to learn how to handle a hen 
for prepotency is to select a hen you wish for the table. Cut 
the corner off of a gunny sack ; hold her as in Fig. 36 ; put your 
hen in sack and tie her, as in Figs. 37 and 38 ; then make a hook 
of wire or a hair-pin, attach it to a string with small weight or 
stone; hang hen up against barn or shed, head down, back 
against building; take long-bladed pocket or other knife with 
sharp point, insert in hen's mouth, and draw across the roof 
of the mouth at the back of the brain at the junction of the 
neck, severing the blood- veins, then immediately force the 
knife through the roof of the mouth into the brain. The 
knife should be forced well into the brain, which will sever 
the nerves, and the bird will feel no pain ; then insert hook in 
the nostril, and the weight will hold the neck straight. The 
hen should bleed freely. After bleeding has stopped, clean 
mouth and surrounding parts of blood, and place hen in some 
convenient place — on a box or coop. The thumb-nail on the 
left hand and nail on the forefinger of the right hand should 

p H— 6 



82 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



be longer than the thumb and finger, so the flesh on end of 
thumb and finger will not prevent the nail from entering the 
slight depression between the skull and neck. 

We will suppose the reader has handled the hen as sug- 
gested above. Lay the dead hen as in Fig. 39; take hold of 
comb or head and pull neck up with right hand, and while 
holding head up the neck will be stretched out. Turn the 
head down with right hand, so the back of the head will point 
up and beak will point down as much as possible. This will 
make the projection of the brain (arrow 1, Fig. 35) appear 
more prominent, so it will be easier to locate it; then draw 




Fig. 39 — Showing thumb i of an inch ahead of forefinger; 
indicating hen is totally lacking in prepotency. (See Skull No. 4, 
Fig. 35.) 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



83 



ball of thumb of left hand down on head until you feel back 
of skull; when you feel back of skull with ball of thumb, then 
turn first joint of thumb down until thumb-nail fits in between 
end of skull and neck and well up against base of brain; then, 
while holding left hand and thumb as in Fig. 39, put fore- 
finger of right hand at base of brain behind the ear, as in 
Fig. 39, between the neck and the skull and against the skull 
behind the ear, as in Fig. 39. The ear can readily be dis- 
covered by lifting up its hairy covering. The thumb-nail 
must be held perfectly straight across the neck, as in Fig. 39, 
and not sideways; and the forefinger must be held perfectly 
at right angles with the thumb, or the length of projection 




Fig. 40 — Thumb even with forefinger; indicating she has pre- 
potency small. (See Skull No. 3, Fig. 35.) 



84 



THE GALL OF THE HEN. 



(arrow 1, Fig. 35) from the base of the brain (arrow 4, Fig. 35) 
cannot be measured accurately. 

The reader will notice that my thumb-nail is ahead of my 
forefinger-nail in Fig. 39 ; this indicates that this hen is wholly 
lacking in the ability to transmit any redeeming qualities to 
her offspring, also that she has no desire for offspring. If this 
were a male bird, the eggs from his matings would be infertile. 
Fig. 40 shows thumb on line with forefinger. Matings from 
this type of head would not produce very fertile eggs, and the 
progeny would deteriorate each year if they were bred from 
stock with heads like this. If the parents were 200-egg type, 
their egg-yield and vitality would be reduced each generation 




Fig. 41 — Showing thumb i 
indicating hen has prepotency full. 



of an inch behind forefinger; 
(See Skull No. 2, Fig. 35.) 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



85 



of breeding. If they were of the beef type, their vitality and 
abiUty to produce flesh economically would diminish with each 
generation. If they were a fancy type, the breeder would be 
up against a stone wall of discouraging experiments. 

I would advise the reader to take special notice of Fig. 
43, as this cut shows the method of determining prepotency 
plainer than any of the others. 

Fig. 41 shows a hen with prepotency full — i. e., thumb 
Vs of an inch behind forefinger. Sometimes a poultryman 
will be lucky enough to mate up a lot of pens of the right 
type for his purpose with heads like Figs. 41, 42, and 43. His 
business prospers, and his neighbors call him "lucky." While 




Fig, 42 — Showing thumb V4 of an inch behind forefinger; 
indicating hen has prepotency large. (See Skull No. 1, Fig. 35.) 



86 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



Others are going bankrupt raising poultry, he holds his own 
and is making a good living. Figs. 42 and 43 show a hen 
with an excellent head for breeding purposes. The thumb 
in this case is V4 of an inch behind the forefinger. If this 
hen is mated to a male bird of the same type and prepotency, 
her eggs will be very fertile, and a large number of the progeny 
will be equal to and some will excel the parent stock in the 
lines that predominate in the parents. By selecting these 
few specimens each season for breeding, it is possible to 




Fig. 43 — Showing how to hold bird between knees after you 
become proficient in testing head while bird is in sack. 



breed a highly valuable type in the course of time. Fig. 43 
shows how to hold a bird between the knees after you be- 
come proficient in testing the head while the bird is in a sack.. 
After a little practice you will become so proficient that you 
can test birds for prepotency without having to put them 
in a sack. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 87 



CHAPTER X. 



Testing Hens on a Large Scale, Using Charts 44 and 45. 

I will describe in this chapter how I cull hens when we 
have large numbers of them, as we have in poultry plants in 
California. I shall take it for granted that the reader has no 
method of selecting the good from the poor layers, except, 
perhaps, the "Walter Hogan System" or some of its pirated 
forms that are now used extensively in all parts of the civ- 
ilized world, and which is based on the theory that the value of 
a hen as an egg-producer depends on the relative distance 
apart of her pelvic bones and the thinness of same. We will 
suppose the reader has 300 hens; one lot are about a year 
and four months old, another lot are about two ye^ars and 
four months old, and another lot are about three years and 
four months old. Each lot hag been kept in separate yards, 
so there can be no mistake in regard to their ages, or they have 
been toe-punched or otherwise marked. We notice more or 
less feathers lying around the yard, thus indicating the season 
of the year when moulting is near at hand. Everything else 
being equal, the poorest hen moults first, and if she is a very 
poor layer, she will stop laying when she begins to moult and 
will not lay again until the crows lay in the spring. We 
consider it is about time to cuU out the poor layers and send 
them to market. 

The next thing that comes to mind is the question, 
*'What is a poor layer?" That all depends on the price you 
get for the eggs, the price of feed, houses, etc. I raised poultry 
in Todd County, Minnesota, in 1886 and 1887, and sold good 
lumber at the saw-mill for $5.00 per 1,000 feet. Wheat was 
about 1 cent per pound, and wheat screenings for chicken 
feed could be had for the hauling. It is very evident that a 
poorer class of layers might have been kept at a greater profit 
when supplies were at that low price than can be profitably 
kept when supplies are as high-priced as they are at the present 
time. So the reader can see that the matter of the profitable 
hen is a local matter. At this writing you can buy nearly 



88 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



two bushels of wheat in some parts of Minnesota for what 
you will pay for one in California. I was told a few days 
ago that you could buy twice as much oats at the present 
time in Minnesota as you can in California for the same 
money. 

When studying Charts 44 and 45 we see there are certain 
figures lined off from the rest ; this is for the purpose of aiding 
the reader at . a certain time each year to select the poor 





rn 


M Z/1 


CC CO 


inmrnxfiinxrixfiTfim 




or 


b£ bL 


bjO &jO 


bjO&f)bBbiObjObBbX)&yob£ 




b/i 


bfi bci 


&fl bL 


U)£uOb]Ob/)bjOb£bjObX)bjo 


• 

c 

B 

© 


O) 


Cl> CD 


(D 0) 


CPdJ®®®®®®® 


o 


CO c^ 


00 rJ^ 


OCO(MOOtHOCO(NO 


a)- 


CO lO 


CO (N 


r-lOlOOCOLO'^C^rH 


r-i 


r-t 1—t 


T—l T— 1 


T-\ 


T3 










-O 










■< 


<D 


<D 0) 


CD 0? 


Qi®<D<DaJO?<DCJ(D 




a 


rt ri 


rt ti 


rirtriflSPitiflf^ 


4) 


o 


O O 


O O 


ooooooooo 


teX) 


r^ 


rO ^ 


^ ^ 


^^^^^^^^^ 


a 


o 


o o 


O O 


ooooooooo 










■> *^ ■> '> '>: ■> '> '> ■> 




> 


> > 


> > 










1— H 1— 1 1-H 1— H ,-H I—" 1-H , — J 1— 1 


0) 


<D (P 


<D a> 


A 


ft ft 


ft ft 


ftftftftftftftftft 


X 










H 


«c 


\< 


■^ -^ 


«^ CD ^ ^ 

oc ^ *r^ "-i 00 --..^ -^ •--,^ oo 




—1 




-H lO 


cct^,-iCiir3,-icc^-t^ 



s 

o 
o 



© 

0) 

bu 
S 

I 

0) 

& 
O 



tnccccooMcccot/jcccoaJM 
b£)bj05f)bjOb£)&r)bjO&jOb£)bjObX)bjO 
bfibX)bCbjOb£)bDbjObiObf)&jOb/3b/) 

OOOOOOOOOOOOJ 

COt^OOCSOT-HtNCO-^iOCOO 
Oi001>COCOiOTtiC0<NT-i 



oooooooooooo 

oooooooooooo 
^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

oooooooooooo 
ftftftftftftftftftftftft 



rH lO M 



bx) b£i bjObjOfejObfibjobflbjobr) 

OO-OOOOOOQiO 

cO(MOO'^OCO(NOOTtHO 
CO CO (N (M (M i-l rH 



ooooooooo© 
oooooooooo 

oooooooooo 

•r-< •1—1 •!— I •I— I •(— ( •1—1 'l—l •!— ( •!— I •!— 1 

1— ( 1—1 1 — I I— I 1—1 1-H r— I I— H 1-H f— I 

oooooooooo 
ftftftftftftftftftft 



fH ^ CQ t^ rH C^ 



o 


o 


ri 


bx) o 




1— t 


3-5 




02 




>i 




c3 
o 


et-^ 




o 


xn 


O 




r^l 


bH 


Tl 


+3 d 

M O 


eiH 
O 

to 
o 


d 

1— 1 


o 

O 
ft 


cd .^. 
o d 




•1— 1 


^ o 


1^2 


in 


'^ 


o 


d 
o 

&X) 


cd 
o 

rd 
e+H 


o 

w 

o 


.H o 

bD Z. 
b£) d 
o o 


tT 


o 




ei-1 -M 


cS 






O cS 




'xi 


o 


&H 




d 
o 


^^ 


d ® 


o 


CS 


o 'O 


o 




o" 


o ^ 


d 

1-H 
O. 


2 


B 
o 



b£ 
o 



o 

o 

o 



rd 

o 



cd 
d 
o 

i 



O ^ rd be 

o "d M -r! 
c3 ^ O c3 



Cj O CO 03 

(D d ^ K»j 

g -^ ^ eg 

ra cS CS 

CO -5 ^^ 

O ^ '^ 

^ ^ ^ 

^ o o o 

&Z)-0 ^ o 

d © 

Cd .2 C5 02 

o ^ -^^ 2 
- ft|f • 



o 

© 



d ^ 



ft 
© 



f-> d 
d 

© .«G 

H CO 40 (X) 

o S o ^ 

^ -^ " _ 

+^ O -^ 
^ O 

52 S ^ • 

© I , US © 

rH O CO •!-< ^ 

- £ d ^ ^ 

In ^ I 

03 (,J CO rd 



ft c3 

© g 

© 

C4H 

O O 

t>> d 

c3 d 

ft'-;3 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



89 



layers from the good ones without using the charts, thereby 
saving the time necessary to look over the chart and classify 
each hen. 

Charts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, as the reader will learn by 
bearing in mind the following instructions, need be used only 
to determine the laying-score of the individual hen. 

The first figures underlined in Chart 44 are in the column 
indicating three fingers abdomen, from Vie-inch pelvic bone 





m 


m 


W 


rr 


rn 


r/1 


r/3 


r/3 


r/i 


w 


W 


CO M 


rn 


rn 


■W 


rA) 


rn 


w w 




bf) 


bo 


bo 


tD 


bO 


bo 


br 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bO 


bjo bO 




bf) 


bf) 


bo 


bo 


be 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo bo 


bo 


bO 


bo 


bo 


bO 


bjD bo 




a; 


<V 


<v 


<v 


O) 


<D 


O) 


0^ 


a; 


0) 


o 


<D <v 


0) 


a; 


OJ 


0) 


0) 


© 0) 




O 


^ 


O 


»o 


o 


lO 


o 


lO 


O 


LO 


O 


LO o 


lO 


O 


lO 


O 


lO 


O O 


a 


00 


O 


to 


CO 


CM 


o 


Oi 


t^ 


CD 


^ 


CO 


,-1 o 


00 


t^ 


lO 


tH 


CM 


T— 1 




<N 


CM 


(M 


(N 


CM 


CM 


7— ( 


T— 1 


T— 1 


1— 1 


I— 1 


T— 1 rH 














© 
< 


(D 


CD 


<X) 


CD 


OJ 


<V^ 


(D 


XV 


(P 


d 


o 


<D - d 


<D 


® 


(D 


<v 


O) 


(H <D 


ri 


ri 


rt 


a 


ri 


ti 


ti 


a 


ri 


cH 


a 


rt ri 


ri 


ri 


ri 


a 


d 


ri ri 


o 


O 


o 


O 


o 


o 


o 


O 


o 


o 


o 


o o 


O 


o 


O 


o 


o 


O O 


u, 


rO 


Xi 


r^ 


.ft 


^ 


rO 


rQ 


rft 


,ft 


rft 


^ 


rft r^ 


rft 


rft 


rO 


rft 


rO 


rft ^ 


T5C 


o 


O 


O 


c 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


O O 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o o 






































G 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> f> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> > 


iG 




















1 — 1 




rr^ 1 — 1 


1 — 1 


1 — 1 




1 — 1 




, — 1 1 — 1 


0) 


0) 


<v 


<v 


a; 


O) 


<v 


a> 


O) 


0) 


0^ 


03 OP 


(iJ 


0) 


a; 


O) 


O) 


OJ O) 


{^ 


ft 


a 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft ft 


GO 










CO 




^ 




^ 




«= 


.o 




o 


d 


to 


00 


'-' ■* 




^"^ 


00 


■^ 


^"^ 


^ 


^ 


^ 


c^ 


^" 


^ 


~~\ 


■^ ""^^ 


00 


"^ 


"V 


^■^ 


^■^ 


n ,H 




^ 


_ ^ 


r^ 


,-1 


m 


CO 


r-- 


^ 


m 


in 


-< 


n <-< 


t^ 


rH 


1— 1 


1—1 


1—1 


tH ,-1 





rn 


r/} 


rn 


rn 


rr. 


OT 


c« 


W 


rn 


CO 


rn 


r/5 


rn 


CO 


rn 


r/l 


CO 73 




bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


biO 


bo 


bO 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


be bo 




ho 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


b», 


bo 


bo 


biO 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bjO bo 




(D 


CU 


a; 


o; 


0) 


. 0) 


<v 


<u 


0) 


0) 


O) 


a> 


a; 


a; 


0) 


a; 


0) O) 


s 


o 


lO 


O 


lO 


O 


lO 


O 


O 


O 


lO 


O 


ilO 


O 


LO 


o 


lO 


O O 


0) 


lO 


CO 


CM 


O 


Ci 


l> 


CO 


TiH 


CO 


1— 1 


o 


00 


t> 


lO 


Tt< 


CM 


1—1 


s 


CM 


CM 


CN 


CM 


1— 1 


1— 1 


1— 1 


1-H 


1—1 


1—1 


1—1 


















































(1~) 


O! 


® 


© 


C13 


(D 


q; 


® 


<v 


O) 


(V 


0) 


03 


<D 


CO 


<1) 


iD <D 


(H 


ill 


rt 


ri 


ti 


SIJ 


1=1 


rt 


C 


ri 


ti 


fl 


ti 


ri 


ti 


ri 


ri a 


i-i 


o 


o 


O 


o 


O 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


O 


o 


O 


O O 


0) 

B 


rO 


r^ 


rQ 


rQ 


rO 


r^ 


rO 


.o 


rft 


r^ 


rft 


^ 


rQ 


r^ 


^ 


rft 


rO ^ 


CI 


O 


C) 


o 


C^ 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


O 


o 


O 


o 


c^ 


C^) 


O O 


























•f— 1 










^ 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


> 


t> > 


















1—1 




















o 


<T) 


<v 


0) 


OJ 


0) 


1) 


<v 


O) 


O) 


1) 


0) 


Oi 


o 


<v 


4J 


<D 


O) (D 


>■ 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft ft 


s 


2 




CC 


-^ 


S 


00 


o 




^ 


00 


S 


-* 


s 


00 


<n 


.2 


<< 




_r" 


„^ 


«^ 


^^ 


>n~" 


c^ 


r^ 


w'^ 


05 


lO 


;:^ 


n 


« 


t^ 


s 


1— 1 


1— ( 1— 1 





w 


rn 


rn 


M m 


CO 


tA 


!» 


m 


73 


m 


CO 03 


CO 


CO t/3 




ho 


ho 


bo 


bo bjo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bO 


bo 


bO 


bO bo 


bo 


bo bo 




hn 


hr 


bo 


bo bo 


bo 


bo 


bo 


bO 


bo 


bo 


bo bo 


bo 


bo bo 




<s 


03. 


0) 


CD <s 


o; 


03 


03 


<v 


03 


O) 


03 03 


O) 


03 03 


B 

o 


o 


LO 


O 


lO o 


LO 


o 


lO 


O 


lO 


O 


»o o 


lO 


o o 


CM 


o 


o: 


1> CO 


^ 


CO 


r— 1 


o- 


00 


1> 


LO -^ 


CM 


1—1 


CM 


CM 


1—1 


1— i 1—1 


1—1 


tH 


1—1 


1—1 






































73 




























,£ 




























^ 


<V 


CT) 


a> 


(D cc 


0) 


03 


03 


03 


03 


03 


03 03 


03 


03 03 




fl 


rt 


C 


rt rt 


a 


rt 


d 


rt 


rt 


a 


d d 


d 


d d 


O 


O 


O 


o 


o o 


o 


o 


o 


O 


o 


o 


o ,. o 


o 


o o 


bc 


rft 




rQ 


rQ r^ 


rft 


rC 


rft 


rft 


rJ::^ 


rft 


rQ rQ 


rQ 


rft rQ 


fl 


(•■) 


<:-) 


O 


o o 


O 


o 


o 


o 


o 


O 


o o 


o 


o <o 


'C 






















• 1— 1 •<-* 


• 1-1 






t> 


> 


> 


> > 


> 


> 


;> 


> 


> 


> 


> > 


> 


> > 


h4 














1— 1 








l—< I— 1 








© 


O) 


0) 


O) 


03 o; 


CU 


CU 


03 


03 


CD 


03 


03 03 


03 


03 03 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft 


ft ft 


ft 


ft ft 


(S4 






» 


«o 








t£> 




to 


CO 




S d 




■^ 


00 


'"' 


■01 .-1 


00 


'^ 


<>» 


'"* 


00 


~-^^ 


■* ^^■-, 


00 


~^^ 'T' 




^"" 


_^ 


co~^ 


*-4 ift 


eo 


,^"" 


^■^ 


o> 


to 


n 


„ " 


»- 


S 1-1 



ft 

03 
CD 


'> 

r— 1 
03 
ft 


rd 

d 

CD 


•r-t 

d 
o 




u 


rd 
4-S 




ce 




CO 

d 




d 


U 






OJ 


d 




rd 


d 

03 


rd 


05 

d 




o 


rd 


03 




m 
03 

rft 


03 

bo 

d 
cd 


U 
O 


>5 

ft 




d 
d 

03 


03 


-^3 
O 




03 


d 


d 




> 

«d 


o 

rQ 


^ 




biO 




o 


^ 




CD 


O 

:d 


• rH 

!> 

ft 


03 

rd 




03 




-l-> 




rd 


rSH 


rTS 


03 




c~> 


4-> 


7J 




d 


.s 


^ 


d 
(•■) 




OS 




cn 


® 




1— 1 
ft 


t* 


d 

03 


rQ 




T^ 


d 


rd 


d 




•i-H- 


as 


? , 


o 




^ 
S 


rd 

03 


03 

bo 
d 
cd 


03 
CO 




H 

o- 
o 


O 


1 

"CQ 


1 

>> 




o 


03 

d 
o 


d 

C3 


f-H 
4-3 




^ 


M 




$-( 




rd 


o 


ri^ 

C3 


Cd 
03 

rd 


d 


ZJ 


> 


rd 


o 

73 


tu 


03 


-1-3 


4-> 


oi 


d 


ft 






03 


o 




rd 


n 




C3 


rd 


O 




b£) 

d 


03 


4^ 


d 

• rH 


d 


bO 


«> 


03 


>> 


d 


m 


^^ 


03 

rd 
■4-3 


a 


•g 


d 

03 


::j 


r— 1 
03 


o 
.d 


rd 

03 


d 




d 
o 

d 




bo 


■+-i 


Ti 




ri 






d 


LO 


cd 


03 


O 


rd 


'<:t^ 


;h 


(/J 


-M 


6 


d 


O 

Fi 


03 


03 


M 


u 




03 


n 


[^ 


t^ 


72 

03 


ri*1 


a 






d 
o 


C3 

• rl 
rd 


o 






rl-! 


+J 


Um 



90 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

to ^/i6-inch pelvic bone. The second are in the column 
indicating four fingers abdomen, from Vie-inch pelvic bone 
to ^/i6-inch pelvic bone. The third are five fingers abdomen, 
from Vi6-inch pelvic bone to ^/le-inch pelvic bone. The 
fourth are six fingers abdomen, from Vie-inch pelvic bone to 
^Vi6-inch pelvic bone. 

We will make a copy of Charts 44 and 45 on a piece of 
white cardboard and hang it up in a convenient place in 
the yard where the sixteen-months-old hens are penned. We 
will suppose that the hens are all closed in the house or houses. 
We put catching-coop in position as in Fig. 2, and drive hens 
in same as in Fig. 1. When there are enough hens in the 
coop, shut down slide-door that holds them in. In this case 
it is necessary to keep only four fingers in mind ; any four you 
prefer will do. 

Here in California we use the figures 5, 7, 9, and 11 for the 
hen sixteen months old, meaning by this that hens having 
pelvic bones ^/le, ^/le, ^/le and ^Vie inches in thickness 
(depending on the depth of abdomen) will be the maximum 
thickness of pelvic bones of really profitable hens; or in other 
words this means a three-finger-abdomen hen, ^/le-inch 
pelvic bone; four-finger-abdomen hen, ^/le-inch pelvic bone; 
five-finger-abdomen hen, ^/le-inch pelvic bone; six-finger- 
abdomen hen, ^^/i6-inch pelvic bone. Anything below this 
line (that is, any hen having a thicker bone in the different 
classes) goes to market. For the twenty-eight-months-old 
hens we assume that they are hatched in March and sold in 
the summer. We use the figures 3, 5, 7, and ^/le for the 
three-, four-, five- and six-finger-abdomen hens. For the 
forty-months-old hens we use the figures 1, 3, 5, and ^/le 
for the three-, four-, five- and six-finger-abdomen hens. You 
perceive that the older the hen the greater the number of 
eggs she must have laid in her first year. Here in California 
we keep large numbers of hens, and in this way we can sort 
out and market here each year in a short time, as we do not 
have to stop and figure out the percentage of loss for each 
year of age, as these figures come near enough to suit our 
purpose. If they do not suit the local market, the reader 
can use any figures that will. 

I shall give a few examples only to show how we would 
proceed to cull out the hens. The reader must be familiar 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 91 

with the general principles of capacity, condition, and type. 
He should by this time have familiarized himself with the 
charts. Now, if he prepares the figures as I have directed, he 
will experience no difficulty in determining in a moment just 
where and what to do with each individual hen. We establish 
a certain standard of production for the first laying season, 
in order to know how long to keep her. You may take 80 eggs 
for one season, 120 eggs for two seasons, and 150 eggs for three 
seasons, or any other set that suits your local conditions. 
Here we take about 120, 150, and 180 eggs as the standard ; 
that is, a hen must be able to lay about this number in her 
first laying year in order to stay with us for two, three, or 
four seasons. With this explanation, we shall proceed to cull, 
putting into the shipping-coop all hens that fall below our 
standard, and dropping in the yard where we stand any that 
we desire to keep. 

Now, take a hen out of the catching-coop as in Fig. 3, and 
hold her as near as possible as in Fig. 5. Place hand on ab- 
domen. She may be one-finger abdomen, in good condition; 
her pelvic bone may be ^/le o£ an inch thick; her capacity is 
three dozen eggs her first laying-year. She has laid all these 
eggs and will lay no more until the next spring when the crows 
lay, and eggs are cheap; so we decide to put this hen in the 
shipping-crate, to be sent to market. 

We take another hen from the catching-coop, and go 
through the same process. She may be a two-finger-abdomen 
hen, in good condition; her pelvic bones ^/le of an inch thick; 
this indicates a hen that may lay eight dozen of eggs her first 
laying-year. As a rule, when hens are so fed and cared for, 
they will lay their maximum number of eggs their first laying 
year; they will, as a rule, lay about 15 per cent less each year 
after, provided they are given the same care and feed. In 
this case the hen in hand might lay about 85 eggs; if you 
think that will pay you, let the hen drop out of your hands 
into the yard where you are standing; if you think it will 
not pay to keep her, put her in the shipping-crate for the 
market. 

The next hen may be two fingers abdomen, one finger out 
of condition, as in Fig. 20, with pelvic bones V4 of an inch 
thick. If this hen's comb and wattles are red and the hen is 
strong and active, being one finger out of condition indicates 



92 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

that she is not being properly cared for, either in food or 
environment, or both; in the condition she is in at present, 
if continued the whole year, she might lay about 69 eggs, 
while if kept in normal condition, she might lay 138 eggs. 
(See Chart 3.) So we will call her a good hen, and drop her. 

The next hen may be three fingers abdomen, ^/le-inch 
pelvic bone, and in normal condition. If this hen were in 
Petaluma, we would drop her, as she would be a paying hen. 
By referring to the chart, you will see that she is a 124-egg 
type hen. You must bear in mind constantly that a thick 
bone in a hen of small abdominal capacity would mean a 
practical non-producer, while the same thickness of bone in 
a hen of much larger capacity would mean simply a more 
beefy hen. 

The next hen may be three fingers abdomen, in normal 
condition, as in Fig. 19, and pelvic bone ^/s of an inch thick. 
This hen has the same abdominal depth as the preceding, but 
her pelvic bones being ^/g of an inch thick would make her a 
110-egg type hen, and with us no hen that lays 120 eggs pays to 
keep two seasons. We put this hen in the shipping-crate for 
market, as it will not pay to keep her any longer, if in Peta- 
luma. She will not pay for her board after this time and 
leave enough profit. 

The next hen may be four fingers abdomen, in normal 
condition, and ^/le-inch pelvic bone. She, being a 130-egg 
type hen, it will pay to keep her another year, so we drop 
her. 

The next hen may be four fingers abdomen, in normal 
condition, and 3^-inch pelvic bones; this hen will lay ap- 
proximately 115 eggs her first laying year, but not enough 
her second year; so we put her in the shipping-crate for 
market. 

The next hen may be a five-finger-abdomen hen and in 
good condition; ^/le-inch pelvic bone. She is a 130-egg type 
hen, so we drop her. While this hen has a pelvic bone ^/le of 
an inch thick, she has the abdominal capacity to supply herself 
with food enough to lay a profitable number of eggs and put 
on flesh at the same time. 

The next hen is five fingers abdomen, in normal condition, 
and ^/s-inch pelvic bones; this is a 115-egg type hen, so we 
put her in the shipping-crate. The hen we had just before 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 93 

this one was kept; but when we come to the ^/g-inch pelvic 
bone, we decide that we have reached the lowest limit of 
egg-production. 

The next hen may be six fingers abdomen, in normal con- 
dition, and ^Vi6-inch pelvic bone; she will be a 130-egg type 
hen, so we drop her. 

The next hen may be six fingers abdomen, in normal con- 
dition; pelvic bones ^/4 of an inch thick; she will be a 115-egg 
type hen, so we will put her in the shipping-crate. 

The next hen may be three fingers abdomen, three fingers 
out of condition, and Vs-inch pelvic bones. If her comb and 
wattles are pale and bloodless, she is no doubt diseased and 
should be disposed of; but if her comb and wattles are red, 
it indicates, as a rule, that she is out of condition on account 
of accident or lack of feed. In her present condition she 
scores 166-egg type. If we get her in one finger better con- 
dition, she will measure four fingers abdomen, and score 
205-egg type; if we can get her in two fingers better condition, 
she will measure five fingers abdomen and may be^/ie-inch 
pelvic bones, on account of becoming a little more fleshy, 
and score 220-egg type; and if we get her in three fingers 
better condition, she would then be in normal condition, and 
her pelvic bones might be ^/le or ^/4 inch thick; if the latter, 
she would score 235-egg type. (We will have more to say 
on the changing of thickness of the pelvic bone in the last 
of Chapter XVIII.) 

We will continue selecting or separating the good from 
the poor layers in the same manner, keeping every hen for 
another year in the three-finger-abdomen class that is ^/le-inch 
pelvic bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market 
that is over ^/le-inch pelvic bone in the three-finger-abdomen 
class ; keeping every hen in the four-finger-abdomen class that 
is ^/i6-inch pelvic bone and thinner, and sending every hen 
to market that is over ^/le-inch pelvic bone in the four-finger- 
abdomen class; keeping every hen in the five-finger-abdomen 
class that is ^/le-inch pelvic bone and thinner, and sending 
every hen to market that is over ^/le-inch pelvic bone; keep- 
ing every hen in the six-finger-abdomen class that is ^Vie-inch 
pelvic bone and thinner, and sending every hen to market 
that is over ^^/le-inch pelvic bone thick. 



94 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

I want to say here that there is nothing arbitrary in 
regard to Charts 44 and 45. Each poultryman can draw the 
lines where he thinks it will best siiit his purpose. A great 
many years of experimenting has led the writer to believe 
these charts answer the purpose very well. 

We have disposed of all the one-year-and-f our-months-old 
hens, and will move our outfit to the two-year-and-four- 
months-old hens, and arrange the catching-coop and charts 
as in the first case. 

The first hen we take from the coop may be a one-finger- 
abdomen hen, in good condition. All one-and two-finger- 
abdomen hens in good condition over one year and four 
months old, as a rule, should be disposed of. There is no 
profit in them after they have laid their allotted number 
of eggs their first season — or, in other words, after they com- 
mence to moult in their first laying year; so after this we 
will not consider them in this connection. 

There is a great difference in the number of eggs a flock 
of hens will lay each year as , they grow older. Some will 
lose 5 per cent, some 10 per cent, some 15 per cent, and some 
20 per cent. Some will not lay anything (this will be ex- 
plained later) after their first laying year. It depends alto- 
gether on the vitality of the hen and how she has been fed 
and raised ; and the variatipns in the percentage of eggs laid by 
exactly the same type of hens will vary with different poultry- 
keepers and also with the same poultry-keeper, varying more 
or less in each separate pen, proving that environment has 
more or less to do with egg-production, all other things, as far 
as human knowledge is concerned, being equal. Some people 
who are good mathematicians, but who are wholly ignorant 
of animal nature, look surprised when I explain to them the 
difference between classifying the production of a number of 
like machines with the production of a number of hens of the 
same score in egg-production. As a scientific proposition, it is 
impossible to write a chart beforehand that will fit every case. 
If we took 1,000 hens of any pronounced type — say 100-egg 
type, which were fed, housed, and cared for in exactly the same 
manner, and one of them laid 5, 10, or 15 eggs more or less 
some year than the other 999 hens, it would prove our con- 
tention or theory, from a scientific point of view. I am sure 
that 100 expert poultrymen could take 100 hens of the same 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 95 

general type that would score the same egg-capacity and 
would all be in the same condition, and each poultryman feed 
and care for his 100 birds for four years the best he knew how, 
and very few of them would agree on a set of figures that 
would give the percentage of decrease in egg-production each 
year. The one who fed the heaviest and produced the most 
eggs would have the largest percentage of decrease, while the 
ones who fed for hatching eggs and did not force their hens 
with condiments and stimulants would get the least number 
of eggs and the lowest percentage of decrease, not figuring the 
percentage of decrease from the number of eggs actually laid, 
but from what the hen would lay each year. 

The writer does not claim that he has discovered a system 
that will infallibly give results just as he has written them. 
No poultryman needs to be told this, but for the benefit of 
the amateurs I have inserted the above caution. The writer 
claims, by years of investigation and practice, to have formu- 
lated a poultry code as contained in this book that is commer- 
cially the approximation of perfection. 

We will return to our two-year-old hens. We said all one- 
and two-finger-abdomen hens shbuld be sold and we will con- 
sider them no more than to put them in the market crates 
when we find one. The reader will remember that in selecting 
the sixteen-months-old hens we retained only those in the 
three-, four-, five-, and six-finger-abdomen columns that meas- 
ured Vi6, ^/i6, ^/i6, and ^Vi6 of an inch or less, and everything 
below these lines went to market. In the show-room, 
when the writer judges utility birds, we use the charts, so as 
to score each bird according to its capacity for egg-production ; 
but when we cull the poultry on commercial plants, in order 
to save the time of looking on the charts, we keep in mind 
only four figures for the hens of any age that we are examin- 
ing. For hens about sixteen months old, we use the figures: 
5, 7, 9, and 11, which represent that many sixteenths; for 
hens with three-finger abdomens, we use the figures ^/lel for 
four-finger-abdomen hens, ^/le; for five-finger-abdomen hens, 
^/le; and for six- finger-abdomen hens, ^Vie- All under three 
finger abdomen go to the market and all under the line go 
also. 

For the two-year-and-four-months-old hens we keep in 
mind the following figures: 3, 5, 7, and 9 sixteenths. For 



96 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

the three-finger-abdomen hen, ^/le-inch pelvic bone; four- 
finger-abdomen hen, ^/i6-inch pelvic bone; five-finger-abdomen 
hen, ^/i6-inch pelvic bone. Everything below these figures 
goes to the market; also all one- and two-finger-abdomen 
birds there may be in the lot. 

We now go to the hens that are three years and four 
months old. Any one- and two-finger-abdomen birds that 
we may find go to market and all the three-finger-abdomen 
birds below Vie-inch pelvic bones. For the three-year-and- 
four-months-old birds we bear in mind 1,3,5, and 7 sixteenths . 
Three-finger-abdomen hen, ^/le-inch pelvic bones; four-finger- 
abdomen hen, ^/i6-inch pelvic bones; five-finger-abdomen 
hen, ^/i6-inch pelvic bones; and six-finger-abdomen hen, 
^/i6-inch pelvic bones. All below these lines go to market. 

If the reader has some good hens that he wishes to breed 
from, he cam use the figures: 1, 3, and 5 sixteenths. 

The fourth year, when he wishes to select from the four,- 
five- and six-finger abdomen hens, it will be: Four-finger- 
abdomen hen, ^/i6-inch pelvic bones; five-finger-abdomen hen, 
^/i6-inch pelvic bones; and six-finger-abdomen hen, ^/le-inch 
pelvic bones. Very few will want to keep hens as long as this. 
They will be five years and about four months old when you 
will sell them. Most people here sell them about the time 
they commence to moult — after they are two years old; but I 
selected the hens used at the California State Poultry Ex- 
periment Station to test this method as far as the egg-laying 
qualities were concerned, and the hens I selected as hens that 
would pay at four years made a good paying record. 

The reader will understand that the way we have just 
been selecting the paying hens is the way we select when we 
have large numbers; this is the way I selected 1,600 hens in 
six hours at the poultry farm of the Ukiah State Hospital, 
Mendocino County, California, and at other State hospitals 
and poultry plants. We do not have to stop to figure out the 
percentage of loss of each bird. You can take any combina- 
tion of figures you wish, as V4-inch, ^/g-inch, V2-inch, ^/s-inch, 
foi: sixteen months-old birds; Vie-inch, ^/ig-inch, ^/le-inch, 
■^/le-inch, for twenty-eight-months-old birds. You can figure 
out the percentage of loss each year and take a combination 
of figures that will suit your purpose. You have onh^ to 
carry four figures in your mind. The percentage of loss each 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 97 

year is computed by good poultrymen to be from 10 to 20 per 
cent in egg-production on plants that are run for hatching eggs. 
If you force your hens with an excess of meat and condiments, 
the loss will be according to how you feed them, and no 
one can tell what it may be but yourself. Some poultrymen 
will get practically all there is in a hen out of her the first 
season, then sell her. 

CHAPTER XI. 



The Male Bird. 

This is not a treatise on cattle or horses, but we have to 
use them very often to illustrate the matter in hand. Stock- 
raising has been brought to more of a science than poultry- 
raising, and is well understood by thousands of our progres- 
sive farmers. I have met hundreds of them who could de- 
scribe to me the points I would have to consider in selecting 
a good-paying butter-fat, beef or milk proposition, both in dam 
and sire ; and while there may be as many poultrymen who un- 
derstand the selection of poultry, both male and female, for 
egg- and meat-production, I have failed to meet them; and 
while I was made the butt of ridicule by the poultrymen when 
I issued my first pamphlet, entitled the "Walter Hogan Sys- 
tem," in March, 1905, the stock-raisers who were interested 
in poultry stood by me to a man. The reason was, that the 
cattlemen had been studying along the utility lines in both 
sire and dam in order to develop the milk, butter-fat, and 
beef-producing capacities of their cattle. It was a com- 
paratively easy proposition for them. The form of the ani- 
mals was plainly to be seen. They were not covered with a 
coat of fluff and feathers that hid the shape and form of the 
subject. It was easy to distinguish between the cat ham of 
the butter-fat type and the full, deep ham of the beef type. 
It was no trouble to compare the udders, milk- veins, and 
wedge-shape type of the Jersey with the full, rounded build 
of the Hereford or Polled Angus. 

On the other hand, the poultrymen, to some extent, were 
deceived by the appearance of their hens. Take, for instance, 
the Cochin and the Bantam ; they would hold about the same 
relation to each other as the lordly Durham would to the fine- 

P H— 7 



98 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

bred Devon, yet I have found Bantam hens with as deep ab- 
domen as a great Cochin hen; and it is my opinion that if 
poultry were as bare of feathers as cattle are, the poultry in- 
dustry would be as far advanced at present as is the cattle 
business. 

The greatest impediment to the successful breeder of 
poultry has been the inability to select the male bird of the 
required type. The custom in vogue at the present writing 
with most poultrymen is to trap-nest their hens and raise 
cockerels from the best layers as indicated by the trap-nest. 
The trouble with this method is, that while the hen may lay a 
large number of eggs, she may not have the faculty to transmit 
her laying qualities to her offspring, and her cockerels may be 
deficient in both egg-laying qualities and the ability to trans- 
mit what good qualities they may possess to their progeny. 

Again, I have seen a great many cases where poultry- 
farmers would send away and buy a lot of cockerels. The man 
that raised and sold them had no knowledge of how to classify 
them, and the man who bought them knew^ he w^as buying 
cockerels and that is all he did know about them. He could not 
be sure whether they would increase his egg yield or not. He 
had to pay his money aad take chances. It was nothing more 
nor less than a gamble ; but the days of gambling in the poultry 
business are passed for the intelligent, progressive poultryman, 
no longer will he be obliged to trust to luck or intuition. 
He will be able to select his male birds wkh as much assur- 
ance as his hens, and instead of groping in the dark, he will 
have the satisfaction of seeing and knowing just what he is 
doing by bearing in mind the instructions in this chapter. 

The reader will by this time be familiar with the different 
types and capacities of hens, and will not be surprised to 
learn there is a similar number of variations in the male 
birds ; and if one wishes to produce a certain type and capacity 
in a pullet or cockerel, he must select the parent birds that 
will produce that type. We know how to select the hen; 
we will now take up the study of how to select the male 
bird. 

We go through the same movements in selecting or testing 
the male bird as we do in selecting the hen, but we use a dif- 
ferent set of charts. For example, it is possible for a hen to 
change from six to three fingers in abdominal capacity within 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 99 

a month and be healthy and active, and in another month to 
return back to her original six-finger capacity, but it is not so 
with the male bird after he is mature. I have tested male 
birds at nine months of age that scored four fingers abdomen, 
Vi6-inch pelvic bone, that did not change for four years, ex- 
cept that, their pelvic bones being Vie of an inch thick at nine 
months old, I have found them to be Vs of an inch thick at 
eighteen months old. They had increased in thickness of 
bone from ^/le to ^/s inch. These were egg-type male birds; 
the meat-type will vary more or less in the thickness of the 
pelvic bones — depending on how much flesh they put on or 
lose between the different times of examining them. 

It will be easy to distinguish the egg-type cock bird from 
the meat-type bird ; the former has thin pelvic bones, whether 
in flesh or not, while the latter has .thick pelvic bones with a 
more or less lump of gristle on the end of them, whether he is 
thin or in good flesh. I have found that in classifying the male 
bird as we have the hen as to type and capacity for a certain 
egg-yield it requires less abdominal capacity in the male bird 
than in the female. For instance, the male bird that is two 
fingers abdomen and ^/u of an inch pelvic bone is the same 
type and capacity for breeding purposes as the three-finger- 
abdomen hen, ^/i6-inch pelvic one. The male of the same 
class, as regards capacity, does not require as large an abdomen 
as the female ; this is so self-evident that it would be a waste 
of time to try to explain the reason for it. 

I have heard poultrymen say that the male bird is half of 
the flock. I wonder if they stop to consider whether this is so 
or not. M>^ birds are wonderful layers, and I mate one male 
bird to every twelve hens, and from a breeder's point of view 
I consider my male birds a great deal more than half the flock. 
If I mate 100-egg type cock birds with 200-egg hens, the 
progeny may lay about 150 eggs, thus reducing my egg- 
yield about 25 per cent in the progeny of each of the twelve 
hens. For this reason I have given as much thought to the 
male bird as I have to the hen; and in arranging the charts 
for the male birds have experienced a great deal of dififi- 
culty, as it takes years of time and hundreds of matings 
to arrive at conclusions that would be approximately correct. 
In any one case, everything else (type, capacity, and breed) 
being equal, care and environment have a dominating in- 



100 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

fiuence on the product, whether eggs or meat; consequently, 
if a number of investigators were working on this proposi- 
tion, using the same system of selection, they could not help 
but arrive at somewhat different conclusions as to figures, 
but that would not affect the value of the system. 

MALE BIRD— CHART A. 

One-finger Abdomen. 

Vi6 pelvic bone 84-egg type 

i/s pelvic bone 75-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 67-egg type 

V4 pelvic bone 58-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 50-egg type 

^/s pelvic bone 41-egg type - 

^/i6 pelvic bone 33-egg type 

^A pelvic bone . 24-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 16-egg type 

^/s pelvic bone "^-egg type 

^Vi6 pelvic bone 0-egg type 

MALE BIRD— CHART B. 

One-and-one-half-finger Abdomen. 

V16 pelvic bone 132-egg type 

Vs pelvic bone 120-egg type 

^ /16 pelvic bone 109-egg type 

V4 pelvic bone 98-egg type 

V16 pelvic bone 87-egg type 

^ /s pelvic bone . 75-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone. 64 egg type 

V2 pelvic bone 53-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 42-egg type 

Vs pelvic bone 30-egg type 

^Vi6 pelvic bone 19-egg type 

V4 pelvic bone 8-egg type 

^^/i6 pelvic bone 0-egg type 

^/g pelvic bone 0-egg type 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



101 



Vl6 

Vs 

Vl6 

Vs 
Vie 



'A 



MALE BIRD— CHART C. 

Two-finger Abdomen. 

pelvic bone 180-egg type 

pelvic bone 166-egg type 

pelvic bone . 152-egg type 

pelvic bone 138-egg type 

pelvic bone 124-egg type 

pelvic bone 110-egg type 

pelvic bone 96-egg type 

2 pelvic bone 82-egg type 

16 pelvic bone 68-egg type 

pelvic bone. 54-egg type 

^Vi6 pelvic bone 40-egg type 

^/4 pelvic bone 26-egg type 

^^/i6 pelvic bone 12-egg type 

^/s pelvic bone 0-egg type 

MALE BIRD— CHART D. 

Two-and-one-half-finger Abdomen. 

Vi6 pelvic bone. ............ 200-egg type 

pelvic bone 185-egg type 

pelvic bone. 171-egg type 

pelvic bone 156-egg type 

pelvic bone 142-egg type 

pelvic bone 127-egg type 

pelvic bone 113-egg type 

pelvic bone 98-egg type 

pelvic bone . 84-egg type 

pelvic bone 69-egg type 



/ 



/16 
V4 
Vl6 
V8 
Vl6 
72 
Vl6 

Vs 

^Vi6 pelvic bone 55-egg type 

^/4 pelvic bone 40-egg type 

^^/]6 pelvic bone 26-egg type 

^/s pelvic bone 11-egg type 

^Vi6 pelvic bone 0-egg type 



Vl6 

'A 
V 



16 



MALE BIRD— CHART E. 

Three-finger Abdomen. 

pelvic bone 235-egg type 

pelvic bone 220-egg type 

pelvic bone 205-egg type 



102 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

V4 pelvic bone 190-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bo^ne 175-egg type 

^ /s pelvic bone 160-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 145-egg type 

V2 pelvic bone . 130-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 115-egg type 

^/s pelvic bone 100-egg type 

^Vi6 pelvic bone 85-egg type 

^/4 pelvic bone 70-egg type 

^^/i6 pelvic bone 55-egg type 

^/s pelvic bone 40-egg type 

^^/i6 pelvic bone 25-egg type 

1-in. pelvic bone 10-egg type 

17 



16 



pelvic bone 0-egg type 



MALE BIRD— CHART F. 

Three-and-one-half -finger Abdomen. 

V16 pelvic bone 257-egg type 

Vs pelvic bone 242-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone. . . . ? 227-egg type 

V4 pelvic bone 212-egg type 

V16 pelvic bone 197-egg type 

^/g pelvic bone 182-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 167-egg type 

V2 pelvic bone 152-egg type 

V16 pelvic bone 137-egg type 

Vs pelvic bone 122-egg type 

"/16 pelvic bone. . ." 107-egg type 

V4 pelvic bone 92-egg type 

^Vi6 pelvic bone. 77-egg type 

^/s pelvic bone 62-egg type 

^Vi6 pelvic bone. 47-egg type 

1-in. pelvic bone 32-egg type 

^Vie pelvic bone 17-egg type 

P /s pelvic bone 0-egg type 

MALE BIRD— CHART G. 

Four-finger Abdomen. 

V16 pelvic bone 280-egg type 

^ /s pelvic bone 265-egg type 



3 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 10 



16 pelvic bone 250-egg type 



Q 



V4 pelvic bone 235-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 220-egg type 

^/s pelvic bone 205-egg type 

^/i6 pelvic bone 190-egg type 



1 



9 



'1 pelvic bone 175-egg type 

/16 pelvic bone 160-egg type 



^ /s pelvic bone 145-egg type 

^Vi6 pelvic bone 130-egg type 

^/4 pelvic bone 115-egg type 

^V 16 pelvic bone 100-egg type 

^/s pelvic bone 85-egg type 

^^/i6 pelvic bone. 70-egg type 

1-in. pelvic bone 55-egg type 

^^/i6 pelvic bone. 40-egg type 

iVs pelvic bone 25-egg type 

IV16 pelvic bone 10-egg type 

1 V4 pelvic bone 0-egg type 

We consider the male bird of so much importance that we 
have made seven charts for his classification as to ^%% and 
meat types. See Charts A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. While 
Chart A may not be needed and Chart B used very seldom, 
we thought it best to include them. All old poultry men and 
stock-raisers know that so many considerations enter into 
the breeding and raising of live stock of all kinds that it is 
impossible to lay down hard-and-fast rules that can be de- 
pended upon beforehand to bring definite results in all parallel 
cases. This is written as a caution to beginners, especially 
to those whose experience has been at the desk or behind the 
counter. 

Fig. 46 shows a cock bird four fingers abdomen and Fig. 
47 shows the same bird ^/s-inch pelvic bone, making him a 
265-egg type bird. 

The reader will see by Figs. 46 and 47 that we use the 
same methods to determine the egg- value of a male bird as we 
use for the hen, except that we do not think it advisable to 
take the matter of condition into consideration, or rather it is 
better not to lay down rules in the matter, as it is very hard 
to keep the egg-type birds in good condition; but I try to 
keep my cock birds in good flesh and not over one finger 




Fig. 46 — Showing four-finger depth of abdomen of 265-egg 
cock bird. 




Fig. 47 — Showing |-inch pelvic bone of 265-egg cock bird. 




Fig. 48 — Showing Vie inch pelvic bone of 280-egg type hen. 




Fig. 49 — Showing six-finger depth of abdomen of 280-egg type hen. 



106 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 




Fig. 50 — 280-egg type hen and 265-egg type cock bird, 
of cock is somewhat cramped for want of room. 



Tail 



out of condition at any time. There are times before the 
male birds are a year old and while their bones are soft that 
their abdomens will contract and expand, it depending on 
whether they are stinted in their feed or whether they are 
fed liberally. Egg-type cockerels selected for breeders should 
have the best care and food (see chapter on Selecting Cock- 
erels for Breeding). In examining the male birds for pre- 
potency, the reader should select them with the greatest 
care. I cannot impress this on the reader too strongly. They 
should be as good or better if possible than No. 1, Fig. 35, 
and do not forget that the thumb-nail on the left hand and 
the nail on the forefinger of the right hand (reverse the order 
if left-handed) must be somewhat longer than the flesh, if 
you expect to take correct measurements. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 107 



CHAPTER XII. 



Selecting the Cockerels at Broiler Age. 

I have tried to impress on the reader the importance of 
the careful selection of the male birds, and perhaps he is fully 
alive to the value of doing so. He starts out at the first op- 
portunity and visits all the poultry plants far and near, with 
the determination to purchase the best male bird he can find. 
Before starting out, he decides he will have nothing less than 
200-egg types. Imagine his disappointment when, after han- 
dling perhaps fifty or more, he can find nothing that will come 
any way near the 200-egg type; while if he examines the same 
number of hens, he will very likely find at least one or perhaps 
more that will come somewhat near what he is looking for. 
Then he will say that there is no such bird as the chart de- 
scribes as a 200-egg type cock bird. I wish to say here that I 
think I have at least fifty male birds at the present writing 
that will scale from 200 up, according to the charts. I have 
over a dozen that will scale from 250 to 265, and these have 
all been developed within six years from hens with three- 
finger abdomens and J^-inch pelvic bones, mated to cockerels 
with 13/2-iiich finger abdomens and ^/le-inch pelvic bones. 

The first season in California we raised about 300 cock- 
erels up to three months of age, which is within the broiler age 
for this section. We arranged our house and catching-coopi 
as in Figs. 1 and 2, and we went through the same movements 
that we do when testing the hens, except that we do not have 
to use all the tests on each one of the cockerels that we use 
on the hens. We hold the cockerel as in Figs. 5 and 6 and lay 
our hand on his abdomen as in Fig. 7. As soon as we lay our 
hand on his abdomen we can feel instantly whether his pelvic 
bones are straight, like Fig. 34, or crooked, like Fig. 33. If 
his pelvic bones are like Fig. 33, we have no use for him as a 
breeder and put him in the shipping-crate for market; if his 
pelvic bones are straight, like Fig. 34, we measure the depth 
of his abdomen; if it is less than two fingers, we put him in the 
shipping-crate; if two fingers or over, we examine him for 



108 THE GALL OF THE HEN. 

prepotency; and if the projection on the back of his head, as 
in No. 1, Fig. 35, is less than Vs of an inch behind a line 
drawn at right angles from the back of the ear (see Figs. 41, 
42, and 43) we put him in the shipping-crate, no matter how 
good he is in other points. We take no chances with him, 
because, if we have made no mistake in measuring his head 
lines, abdomen, and pelvic bones, it will be a w^aste of time 
to breed from him; but if his head measures up good, we keep 
him as a prospective breeder. We say "as a prospective 
breeder," as it is very evident it will not pay to raise all the 
cockerels to maturity. 

Here in Petaluma, where there are over 600,000 cockerels 
raised to broiler age in a season, it would be impossible to 
raise them all and test their breeding qualities, neither is it 
necessary. If a person has a delicate touch, the comparative 
value of chicks for prepotency can be judged as well when 
they are three days old as at any time later. Then again, 
we are obliged to keep our chicks until we can distinguish 
the males from the females, and as a rule we will lose nothing 
if we keep them until they are at least ten weeks old, when, 
if they have had the right care and feed, they will be old enough 
to test. If their pelvic bones are thick at this age, it indicates 
they are more or less of the meat type; if their pelvic bones 
are crooked, it indicates that they never will be straight; 
and if they lack prepotency, it indicates that they will always 
lack it, for they come out of the shell with this organ relatively 
large or small, just as a baby is born with a nose on its face. 

I want to impress on the reader the importance of using 
the utmost care in measuring the head for prepotency, as it 
is very easy for a person to think he has measured the head 
right when he has not done so; especially if he has large self- 
esteem, he then thinks everything he does must be right; it 
would be impossible for him to do anything otherwise than 
the right way. In my classes I have found workers in the 
machinists' trade made the most correct measurements, 
especially if they had the faculty of human nature large, 
while I have found that professional men who had human 
nature small make the poorest measurements; this was owing 
to prejudice, and not to the absence of the combination of 
the necessary mental faculties. I suppose there will always 
be found those who will discredit the most obvious fact, if 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 109 

it puts them at a disadvantage from a mental, moral, or 
financial point of view; but in this case it would be cutting 
off your nose to spite your face to be careless in any of these 
tests. 

I have never yet, in my investigations of hundreds of 
poultry plants, found a degenerate lot of poultry but that 
they were small in prepotency. But to return to the cocker- 
els: As we said on page 107, we raised 300 cockerels the 
first year I was in California. After testing them at three 
months old, as described, I found eighteen that I considered 
worth keeping to the age of nine months, when I would give 
them the final test. When they were eight months old I 
tested them again, and while I found that they all had good 
depth of abdomen and good prepotency, six of them had crook- 
ed pelvic bones. The pelvic bones on twelve of the cockerels 
had continued to grow straight, while the pelvic bones on six 
of them had grown crooked and were coming together at the 
points, like the horns on a Jersey cow. I had to discard 
these six breeders and send them to market. 

The reader will see that,, out of 300 cockerels, I had 
only 12 that were capable of improving my flock. Last 
year (1912), out of about 1,200, I had only 200 that I consider- 
ed good enough to keep for breeders; and while all my birds 
have been more or less squirrel-tailed, one of last year's 
200 is a very well-formed; low-tailed bird, but he lacks the 
pure-white ear-lobes. He scores 250-egg type, and I have 
refused $50.00 for him. I am going to see if I can breed a 
low-tailed type of Leghorn in quantities that will conform 
to the present American Standard, and average about 200 
eggs per year in large flocks. The reader will understand 
that the parents of these cockerels were selected with the 
greatest care as to capacity, type, and prepotency. Type 
and prepotency are more or less hereditary traits or features, 
distinguishable in the subjects, if we have the knowledge 
necessary to discern them. But the individual inherent or 
innate potentiality of any one or each bird cannot be increased 
or diminished by the breeder ; that is to say, feed and environ- 
ment will not materially change the impotent bird into a 
potent bird, neither will it change the typical meat-tjrpe into 
the egg-tjrpe bird. 



110 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

"But," I hear some sarcastic reader say, "we certainly 
can diminish or increase their prepotency by alternately 
starving and feeding them well." That is begging the ques- 
tion. You could affect their fecundity very readily; but what 
the writer wishes to impress on the reader is, that while type 
and prepotency are fixed before birth, and also the ability to 
govern capacity, and while type and prepotency can be pro- 
cured only by selection, capacity can be governed more or 
less by environment — in other words, feed, care, the right 
kind of houses, ground, etc. We will say, for instance, the 
reader has a pen of egg-type birds, both male and female, 
with large prepotency and capacity, and suppose they were 
all 200-egg birds. There would be no difficulty in raising 
chickens from them with the same degree of type and pre- 
potency; but if he should stint them in feed of the proper 
kind and quantity while growing, they would lose in capacity 
each generation. I develop the capacity of both pullets and 
cockerels from the time they are three days old to the fullest 
extent by the most liberal feeding, care, and surrounding 
conditions. 

In concluding this chapter, I w^ould say that the bird with 
the desired characteristics is more or less of a sport, and the 
value of the "Hogan Test" lies in the fact that with this 
knowledge you can discover the sport and perpetuate it 
through intelligent breeding. Again, I want to say here that 
my best cockerels measure four fingers abdomen at three 
months old. All my stock is developed as much as possible 
at this age, and I try to prevent the cockerels from shrinking. 
But the pullets will develop until some of them are six fingers 
abdomen. 

The following article from the Petaluma Weekly Poultry 
Journal emphasizes what we have said in regard to the feeding 
and care of young stock. These cockerels were not crammed 
or penned up and fed, but were taken off free range and 
sent directly to market. I wish to remind the reader here 
that in examining the cockerels for prepotency he may be 
proficient enough in the matter to examine them by holding 
them between his knees and not be obliged to put each one 
in a sack. The article follows: 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. Ill 

"Walter Hogan Can Raise Chickens. 

"Walter Hogan backs up his system of selecting the good 
layers from among the poor ones, but he has never made 
much fuss about his ability as a poultry-raiser. For that 
reason some people have absorbed the idea that he is more of 
a theorist than a practical man. But he now has a flock of 
his own, -and evidently he is making good, for he is getting 
results that will convince any one from Missouri or anywhere 
else who must be 'shown' before believing. For instance, 
last week there was a spell of most discouraging depression 
in the prices which dealers were willing to pay for young 
poultry. There were large arrivals of Eastern poultry in 
San Francisco besides heavy receipts of California, and no- 
body wanted any more. Just the same, Mr. Hogan received 
$4.00 a dozen for sixteen dozen cockerels just three months 
old, when the same dealer was paying but $1.50 for birds 
of the same age. Now, w^hat do you think of that? And 
Mr. Hogan says these cockerels were not descendants of the 
beef type of hens, but w^ere hatched from eggs laid by hens 
selected as the egg type. They were not especially fed or 
in any way prepared for market. They cost 22 cents each 
for feed, and thus the profit on the bunch was $21.76. 

*Tn speaking of this matter, Mr. Hogan made the point 
that if all poultrymen would pay especial attention to pro- 
ducing fine broilers for market — that is, in preparing the 
broilers that they are obliged to produce in order to have a 
corresponding number of pullets — they would benefit them- 
selves greatly. Not only would they get a better price for 
the birds, but they would greatly increase the demand, as 
many people who now care nothing for the common dry- 
meated birds would become pleased consumers of the improved 
broilers. The Poultry Journal man knows by personal ex- 
perience that the broilers turned out by Mr. Hogan are simply 
delicious when properly cooked, and far ahead of the ordinary 
article." 



112 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Selecting the Setting Hen. 

"How can I select the best hen for the purpose when 
I want to hatch chickens with hens?" 

The writer is asked the above question very often. It is 
a serious matter with a poultryrtian when he has a small 
number of choice eggs he wishes to hatch and gives them to 
a hen that is apparently setting well only to have her spoil 
most of them. He very naturally lays the cause to mites 
or lice, or both. While it is true that the nests and sur- 
roundings must be kept free from mites and the hens kept 
clean from hen lice, the trouble is not all here by a good 
deal. Sometimes a great deal of the fault lies in theliens. 
Some are born layers, some are born mothers, and some are 
born too lazy to get off of the nest at the call of Nature. 
The hen born a typical egg type is of no use as a setter, neither 
is the hen that is born a typical meat type; she is too lazy 
to care for her chicks, even if she is fortunate enough to 
hatch any and not kill them all by standing on them. She 
is too stupid any way, and the typical egg-type hen is too 
nervous and has no time to attend to them. She thinks 
of nothing but manufacturing eggs. So we will have to 
look for a hen between the above types, which we have in 
the dual-purpose type, with the following characteristics: 

First, she must have prepotency large; that gives her the 
mother instinct; next, she should be in normal condition, as 
indicated by her breast-bone ; that is self-evident, for a hen out 
of condition lacks more or less of the animal magnetism that 
is an aid to successful incubation. I need not mention good 
health, as indicated by good red comb and wattles, as every- 
one knows that. The hen should be four fingers abdomen, 
since anything heavier is more or less liable to break the 
eggs and anything less than that would not be large enough 
to cover sufficient eggs. If the hen is a three-finger abdomen 
hen, her pelvic bones should be about ^/le or V2 oi an inch 
thick; if she is a four-finger abdomen hen, her pelvic bones 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 113 

should be about ^/2 or ®/i6 of an inch thick. If you can find 
hens such as described here, you will have hens with the mother 
instinct. They will not be too lazy to take proper care of 
themselves and their chicks, nor will they want to lay so soon 
as to neglect their chickens. The nearer you can get to pro- 
curing the above type of hens the better success you will 
have raising chicks with them. 

CHAPTER XIV. 



Selecting the Stock for Raising Broilers. 

A great many of my friends have requested me to write a 
chapter on how to raise broilers, but as there are so many ex- 
cellent books on the market that describe the process of the 
feeding, caring for, and raising of broilers a great deal better 
than I could do it, I will confine myself to the selection of the 
breeding stock only. The writer has raised Light Brahmas and 
White Plymouth Rocks for years, and has experimented with 
them to get the greatest amount of meat from the smallest 
amount of feed; to get the greatest weight of meat at three 
months old in the White Rocks and the greatest weight of 
meat in the Light Brahmas at maturity. In the process I 
have run up against two distinct propositions; one was a 
success from a commercial point of view, and the other, while 
not a financial success, was a success from an epicurean point 
of view. I will describe the financial proposition first: 

We will select a pen of hens from our favorite breed, or 
from Wyandottes, Orpingtons, Plymouth Rocks, or Rhode 
Island Reds. The hens must have large prepotency; they 
must be six or seven fingers abdomen and their pelvic bones 
should be ^/g of an inch thick, in good condition. Now you 
have hens that should lay twelve dozen eggs their first laying 
year, and they are a paying proposition. Do not breed 
from them the first year, but wait until they are over one 
year old; then mate them with a mature cockerel or young 
cock with large prepotency, with abdomen four fingers deep 
or more and pelvic bones from 1 inch to IV4 inches thick. 
You should feed the pen for eggs, and keep them as healthy 
as possible. If they are fed right, you will get lots of eggs 
and good, healthy chicks, capable of putting on flesh rapidly 

P H~8 



114 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



and fattening very easily. As a paying proposition for market 
broilers, I have never found any combination that would 
equal it. 

But for my private use, without regard to profit, I would 
take the same combination as the above, except that the 





1 


Wk 


ifllr'^ '.^H^B 


^^^^B" ' 


1 


m 


' ^^^^^^^5 




■ 


j|^ '■ A^^^jfcj^BH 


IS 




g 


^zai 


u 



Fig. 51 — The dry-mash hopper we use, closed. 



MiL [W^i^^J^ 


• : .'. • •- ^:'r~'S-0!^<'*'r.''5 :.<;:■. ■ 1 


* ^ '* jSA-*>_i.. *1-M^:-^ '^— - 


X 


1 imn vsm W» paB ••«■ "-" IP* ■* »■• «"■* -• ~*''^9Sji 


* 



Fig. 52 — The dry-mash hopper Ave use, open. 

pelvic bones of the hens would be 1 inch thick, instead of 
about ^/s; this would give a broiler that would^put on flesh 
much faster, consequently it would be more tender. I have 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 115 

raised broilers the flesh of which would ahiiost melt in your 
mouth. I have a few^ secrets in the raising of them which 
I have never divulged, but may do so in a few years. 

CHAPTER XV. 



Using the Hogan Test in Judging Poultry at the Poul- 
try Shows. 

From the Live Stock Tribune, Los Angeles, California. 
(Now Pacific Poultry craft.) 

"Inglewood Poultry Show. 

"A poultry show will be held in the Inglewood Poultry 
Colony on March 13th and 14th. This show will be the first 
of its kind ever given in the United States. All poultry shows 
that have been held in this country heretofore have awarded 
prizes according to the color, markings, and shape of the fowls 
only. The show at Inglewood \Yill be unusual in that prizes 
will be awarded irrespective of the color, variety, shape, size, 
or age of the fowls in competition. 

"Birds in competition will be judged as to their egg-laying 
capacities and reproductive abilities only. The judging will 
be done by the system discovered and perfected by Walter 
Hogan and now used in practical poultry-raising by the mem- 
bers of the Inglewood Poultry Colony. 

"First, second, third, fourth, and fifth prizes will be 
awarded to the best males and females entered from Ingle- 
wood; first prize being $5.00 cash, second prize being $3.00 
cash; all winners receiving ribbons. In addition to the fore- 
going, there will be the Jaffa Grand Prize of $25.00 in gold, 
which will be awarded to the hen in the show which shows 
the greatest capacity as a layer, combined with the ability 
to reproduce her kind. 

"Entries for the regular prizes will be limited to fowls 
from Inglewood, but competition for the Jaffa Grand Prize 
will be open to all comers. Entries from poultry-raisers 
outside of Inglewood will be limited to two birds each. No 
entry fee will be charged, but all birds entered will be sent 
at the owner's risk, as is usual at all shows. 



116 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

"The birds entered will be cared for and reshipped to the 
owners by White Wyandotte Farm, under whose auspices 
the show will be given and to whom all entries should be 
sent. No entries will be received after 10 o'clock A. M. on 
March 12th. 

"This show will be unique in that it will present the com- 
merical side of the poultry industry to the exclusion of fancy 
breeding. Every step in the poultry business from the hatch- 
ing of the chick to the preparation of the mature fowl for 
market, and the packing of the eggs for table use will be illus- 
trated by actual demonstrations on the famous White Wyan- 
dotte Farm, where the exhibition will be given. Incubators 
will hatch not less than 2,000 chicks during the show, and 
chickens in every stage of development, from one day old 
to ten weeks old, will be shown as raised in the best brooders 
with the best care. 

"There will be demonstrations on both days of the show 
of killing, picking, and preparing fowls for market, as well as 
of packing fancy eggs. The best and latest in poultry sup- 
plies, fittings, and equipment will be shown as actually used 
by the capable, successful men who are in the business for 
revenue only. 

"No admission fee will be charged, the show being given 
for the purpose of exploiting and demonstrating the poultry 
business as it is being developed in Southern California. 

"The Jaffa Grand Prize is given and named in honor of 
Professor Jaffa, of the University of California, who was the 
first man in public life in this State to test and verify the 
excellence of the system discovered by Mr. Hogan. 

"Transportation from Los Angeles to Inglewood will be 
free, and it is understood that the Board of Trade of Ingle- 
wood will make arrangements to take those who visit the 
show around the city of Inglewood in automobiles. 

"Those who visit the Inglewood Poultry Show wdll see 
an exhibition that will be more interesting by far than any 
show that has preceded it in California or in any other State, 
because one will have an opportunity to see, not the pedigree, 
but the money in the chicken and a practical way to get that 
money out." 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 117 

In judging the poultry show at Inglewood the manage- 
ment made the rule that all birds were to be judged according 
to the condition they were in at the time they were judged, 
and while this rule may be all right in judging the fancy bird 
and the beef- type bird, it will never do for the egg- type bird, 
as the reader will see when I relate an incident that occurred 
during the show in Inglewood, which was held in March, A 
gentleman had entered a White Leghorn hen that he had trap- 
nested a year up to the previous November, and had her 
record with him. The hen scored (as near as I can remember) 
two fingers abdomen, two fingers out of condition, and ^/le- 
inch pelvic bone, and according to the rules of the show I was 
obliged to give her credit for 78 eggs her first laying year, 
when, according to his trap-nested record, she had laid 180 
eggs. He said she had been sick and had just commenced 
to improve shortly before he sent her to the show, and he 
wanted to prove whether or not I could tell how many eggs 
she had laid her first laying year. I told him I could not 
tell how many eggs she had laid, but I could tell how many 
she could have laid if she had been fed and cared for right, 
barring accidents and sickness; that her capacity was 190 
eggs her first laying year. He then showed me her record, 
which was 180 eggs. 

In the autumn of 1911 George D. Holden, ex-president of 
the American Poultry Association, judged the fancy and the 
writer judged the utility birds at the Pajaro Valley Poultry 
Show, held at Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, California. 
In judging that show full credit was given each bird, both male 
and female, as to what they were capable of doing, whether 
in meat or eggs, and for prepotency, without any regard as 
to how their owners cared for them — or, in other words, 
without regard to their condition. And the owners of the 
birds who were interested in knowing wxre instructed how to 
rectify any deficiency there may have been in the birds. It 
seems to me this is the best way to encourage and develop 
the poultry industry. I am sure the American Poultry Asso- 
ciation could formulate a code of rules that would greatly- 
aid in judging utility poultry and thereby add greatly to the 
interest of our poultry shows; in fact, I am advised that such 
a proposition is being considered at the time I am writing 
this (July 25, 1913). 



118 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Stamina in Poultry. 

When I came to California and told the poultry-raisers 
that I was going to take their birds and in the course of time 
breed a flock of 200-egg hens from them, they declared it 
could not be done. They said if it was possible to breed up a 
large flock of 200-egg hens, their progeny would be so weak I 
could never raise them, and that their eggs would be so mis- 
sh'apen and thin-shelled they would not be marketable. I re- 
plied that perhaps they were right, but I saw no reason why 
I could not do so here, as I had bred up one lot in the Eastern 
States and another lot in Minnesota. Both lots were Leg- 
horns, and I thought it would be easier to develop Leghorns 
in California than in Minnesota, and I have now demon- 
strated in California that the following can be done: 

1. The 200-egg hen is a fact and not a theory; 

2. That she can be bred and fed to lay as perfect 

an egg as any other class of hens; 

3. That her eggs are as fertile and will hatch as 

strong chicks as the hen that does not pay 
for her feed. 

The breeder need not take my word for the above state- 
ments. The frontispiece shows five of this type of birds that 
the writer bred and raised in California. These birds laid the 
greatest weight of eggs (131 pens of five birds to each pen 
competing, including three pens of Indian Runner ducks) in 
the National Egg-laying Contest at the State Poultry Ex- 
periment Station, Mountain Grove, Missouri, U. S. A., for 
the twelve months ending November 1, 1912. These five 
hens laid 131 pounds of eggs, which, reduced to No. 1 eggs as 
rated in Petaluma, would be 229^/6 eggs for each hen. The 
eggs these five hens laid while moulting were put on exhibition 
in the Chamber of Commerce in Petaluma and were pro- 
nounced by good judges to be as fine a lot of eggs as they ever 
saw, and that is saying a great deal, as there are more eggs 
produced within a radius of ten miles from Petaluma than 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 119 

in any other like part of the world. We have hundreds of 
letters from our customers testifying to the value of this 
stock, a few extracts from which we will introduce here to 
prove to the reader that because a flock of hens are great 
layers it does not follow that they are of low vitality. 

Extracts from Letters. 

Portland, Ore., June 23, 1912. 
Received eggs. None broken. Very nice. Fifteen in- 
fertile out of 150. C. F. Perkins. 

LiHUE, Hawah, June 11, 1913. 
Eggs arrived O. K. None damaged. Have fourteen 
chicks four weeks old doing fine. Am well pleased. 

E. H. Broadbent. 
(These eggs were shipped over 2,200 miles by rail and 
steamer to reach their destination.) 

Watsonville, Calif., April 5, 1912. 
Eggs received. Finest we ever had. Got forty-nine 
strong chicks from sixty-four eggs. 

Ora L. Hill. 

Vancouver, B. C, May 13, 1912. 
The 100 eggs received. Express and customs ran price 
to $14.00. Am very well satisfied. Hatched 70 per cent 
beautiful chicks ; doing well. G. W. McLelland. 

QuiNCY, Wash., April 14, 1912. 
Chicks received; not a dead one in the bunch, which 
speaks well for the vitality of your stock. 

H. L. Johnson, Treasurer 
and Manager Quincy Lumber Company. 
Victoria, B. C, Sub. P. O. No. 1, 

April 19, 1912. 
Received the 100 chicks; four dead. Think that is very 
good, coming that journey. James D. West. 

Salem, Ore., April 19, 1913. 
Received baby chicks; they are just lovely; not one dead, 
which we think is great. They came in fine shape. 

Mr. and Mrs. Havre. 



120 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

Seattle, Wash., August 25, 1912. 
Received the 1,040 chicks about ten weeks ago; there 
were five dead in the boxes. Have lost about 75 of them, 
all told. S. K. SuTTLE. 

Tucson, Ariz., February 17, 1913. 
Received chicks in good condition; 1 dead, 623 alive and 
kicking. L. E. Smith. 

Reno, Nev., March 11, 1913. 
Chicks came through fine ; 1 dead in 700, which speaks 
well for their vitality. They surely are a spry bunch. 

A. L. Rice. 

Reno, Nev., July 22, 1913. 
Chicks are fine; they are the largest and best-looking ever 
seen in Nevada. They are just 4 months and 12 days old. 
One of them laid yesterday. Every poultryman that sees 
them remarks it's too bad I haven't a thousand. 

A. L. Rice. 

The preceding extracts are taken from a few of the many 
unsolicited letters I have received from my customers during 
the last two years that I have been selling hatching eggs and 
day-old chicks. I have repeatedly shipped hatching eggs to 
the Hawaiian Islands and as far east as Minnesota, and 
day-old chicks where they would be over seventy-two hours 
on the road. Last summer I turned down over $6,000 worth 
of orders that I could not fill at $10.00 per 100 for eggs and 
$15.00 per 100 for day-old chicks. I am aware I will have 
a hard time convincing some of my readers that what I claim 
for the 200-egg hen is true, but it seems to me any progressive 
poultryman would be satisfied with the proof I offer him. 
I will admit that the eggs and chicks from the 200-egg type 
hens as now bred are not all we would desire, but that is 
owing to lack of proper knowledge of breeding. As I have 
said before, by using the/'Hogan Test" the reader can breed 
as fine or as coarse as his conditions require; and by selecting 
only those birds with large prepotency he will be assured of 
success. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 121 



CHAPTER XVII. 



"At Sea Over Mating" — ^What Shall It Be, the Trap- 
Nest, Me:ndelism, or the Hogan Test? 

(From The North American, Philadelphia, Pa.) 

"At Sea Over Mating. 

"America has some good layers, unheard of and unknown, 
'tis true, but we are evidently all at sea in the matter of mating 
for egg-production. 

"Can it be possible that Mendel's law obtains in egg- 
production just as it does in feathers and form? Do we elim- 
inate, according to Mendel, the factor governing certain 
things in egg-production, just as we do in the attempt to con- 
trol coloring in birds, fowls, animals, and flowers? If a son of a 
heavy-laying female is mated to a non-layer and this son does 
not carry the excess of laying proclivity, do we get poor layers 
or good layers? If a 100 per cent producing hen (200 eggs or 
more) is mated to the sonx)f a 100 per cent producing female, 
it does not follow, if Mendel's law applies, that the mate to 
the second 100 per cent female inherited egg-laying procliv- 
ities ; therefore, why should the offspring of the second mating 
be prolific egg-producers? And how far back must we go 
to get the excess of female inclination to reproduction? 

"Predominance of inclination exists somewhere in some 
tangible form, but we do not seem to be able to find it under 
our present system. That we will is conclusive, but we 
must do so quickly, in order to offset the growing increase of 
foodstuffs." 



The trap-nest identifies and gives you the number of eggs 
a hen lays and is absolutely, necessary if we wish to line-breed 
or raise pedigreed stock. The writer has studied Mendelism 
since the spring of 1910, as he has numerous other scientific 
works, in the endeavor to find something that would be of aid 



122 THE GALL OF THE HEN. 

in getting out this work. I must confess that the title, "The 
Call of the Hen," was suggested while on a visit with Comrade 
Jack London, and that is all I have been able to find that has 
aided me in this case. Mendelism may be found an aid along 
the line of feathers, but I doubt if there is anything in it that 
will aid the poultryman in the selection of breeders for type, 
stamina, and the production of eggs or meat. It may be that, 
having eyes, I fail to see it. Even if there should be anything 
of value in Mendelism, it would take two or more years to get 
it out, while "The Hogan Test" indicates the value of a bird 
in a few minutes, at most. It looks to me as if the poultrymen 
will have to look at the trap-nest and "The Hogan Test" to 
develop and maintain the high-scoring meat- and egg-produc- 
ing hen. The best pullets can be selected at maturity by "The 
Hogan Test" and then trap-nested when the poultryman is 
breeding pedigreed stock; while the culled pullets, lacking in 
prepotency and other points, can be kept as market-egg pro- 
ducers. In this way it will be necessary to trap-nest only the 
cream of the flock, and thereby save an immense amount of 
labor. The cockerels can also be selected at three months of 
age and the most promising saved from slaughter. By this 
method poultry-breeding will be reduced to a science and be- 
come a pleasure, where now it is a brain-racking proposition. 

A Trap-Nest or the Hogan System. 

By Charles H. Parker. 

March 21st, 1916. 
To the Editor, 

The Poultry Item, Sellersville, Pa. 
Dear Sir : — Some seven months ago I saw an advertise- 
ment in the Poultry Item about the Hogan system. I at 
once wrote for a copy and after reading it carefully was so 
much impressed with the principles upon which it was based 
that I determined to give it a thorough trial. The enclosed 
article gives the results of my six months' test of the system ; 
these results are so striking that I have ventured to send 
them to you for publication in your paper. I hope you w^ll 
be able to use it as getting these facts has involved a great 
deal of close personal attention and effort. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 123 

I presented a copy of Mr. Hogan's book to a neighbor 
poultryman and induced another to send for a copy. The 
book was entirely unknown in this section. Both of my 
friends are enthusiastic about the system and have already 
found it of great value. They are both expert poultrymen, 
one of them having charge of Mr. C. F. Lewis' poultry yards 
here and the other having been in the business for fourteen 
years. The latter has found the chapters devoted to pre- 
potency of cocks especially valuable and now understands 
why his flock went all to pieces some years ago after five 
years of careful upbuilding. 

Very truly yours, 

Charles H. Parker. 



"Do the physical characteristics of a pullet or hen — the 
distance between the pelvic bones and the breast bone, the 
width of the pelvic bones and the condition as indicated by 
the amount of flesh on the breast bone — enable a poultry- 
man to foretell, with approximate accurac}^, the number of 
eggs that a pullet or hen will lay in a year? This is the question 
the writer decided to answer for himself after reading Walter 
Hogan's book "The Call of the Hen." 

"If the system as outlined by Mr. Hogan is to be. relied 
upon the use of the trap nest would not be necessary except 
for pedigree work. No poultryman needs to be told how 
valuable, if reliable, such a system would be ih enabling him, 
with a minimum of labor and expense, to build up a flock 
with a high egg yield, to regulate feeding by separating the 
egg from the meat type and in many cases to turn losses 
into profits. 

• "The book made such an impression upon the writer that 
he at once determined to measure his hens according to the 
directions given by Mr. Hogan, to note the egg laying capacity 
as thus indicated and to check this forecast with an actual 
trap-nest record. 

"Following are the very striking results of this experiment, 
extending over a period which put the system to a severe 
test — the months of September, October, November, Decem- 
ber, January and February, in the state of Connecticut. 
The hens were Fishel's White Rocks, fed during the test, 
according to the Cornell formulas and confined in yards 



124 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



allowing 100 square feet per bird. Each hen was carefully 
measured and leg-banded, great care being taken that no 
mistakes were made in the measurements. These measure- 
ments and the egg laying capacity they indicated according 
to the system were as follows: 





Capacity 


Condition 


Pelvic 


Egg 




in fingers. 


in fingers. 


bones, 


capacity 


Hen No. 






inches. 




RIO 


5 


1 


V4 


235 


G3 


5 


1 


V4 


235 


G7 


5 


1 


3 

8 


205 


R8 


4 


2 


3 

8 


205 


Gil 


5 


1 


3 
8 


205 


G8 


3 


2 


3 

8 


175 


R4 


5 





72 


145 


R6 


3 


1 


V2 


115 


G9 


4 


1 


V4 • 


85 



"According to the measurements given in the above 
table RIO and G3 were the best hens and would lay, if properly 
fed, in six months about 100 eggs. On the other hand R6 and 
G9 were not worth keeping. Following is the actual num- 
ber of eggs laid during the six months of the test from August 
24 to February 23rd, compared with the forecast made ac- 
cording to the Hogan System. 



len No. 


Hogan forecast. 


Actual trap-nest 
record. 


RIO 


100 


104 


G3 


100 


102 


G7 


83 


83 


R8 


83 


82 


Gil 


83 


77 


G8 


73 


60 


R4 


60 


51 


R6 


48 


21 


G9 


35 


19 



"It will be seen from the above table that the relative 
egg laying value of the nine hens was not altered in a single 
instance. In the case of the first five hens it is remarkably 
accurate. The next three hens went into partial moult dur- 
ing the test while G9 was sick for a while. 

* 'These figures speak so eloquently for themselves that no 
comment is necessary except to emphasize the value of the 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 125 

system from a financial point of view. The profit or loss on 
the nine hens, figuring the cost of feeding at $1.20 per hen 
for the six months is as follows: 





Profit over 






cost of feeding. 


Loss. 


RIO 


$2.48 




G3 


$2.47 • 




G7 


$1.72 




R8 


$1.41 




Gil 


$1.53 




G8 


$ .57 




R4 


$ .50 




R6 




$0.64 


G9 




$0.70 



"The writer wishes to urge the importance of absolute 
accuracy in taking measurements and in taking them at the 
right time — ^when hens are laying well. This is illustrated 
in the case of R7 which just before going into moult measured 
4 finger capacity, 2 fingers out of condition and Vs pelvic 
bones. This indicated the 265 egg type. But her measure- 
ments after moulting were 6 fingers capacity, condition per- 
fect, pelvic bones ''/le, indicating 190 egg type. The writer 
has found that the condition of a hen has considerable in- 
fluence upon the size of the pelvic bones. 

"In conclusion the writer does not claim that a six months 
test of a system either proves or disproves the merits of that 
system. He merely gives the results of his experiment for 
the interest or value that may be attached to them. It is 
his intention to continue this test until the year is finished, 
when he hopes to be able to offer something more definite 
and reliable about a system which at least seems worthy of 
greater recognition among poultrymen." 

CHAPTER XVIII. 



"How Can I Tell a Laying Hen?" 

I am asked this question very often, and in reply would say 
that from a scientific point of view it is impossible to tell the 
laying hen except with the X-ray. When I say this I do not 
mean that you cannot tell in the vast majority of cases, but 



126 THE GALL OF THE HEN. 

there are occasionally hens whose formation is such that no 
known method will tell you whether she is a laying hen or not. 
I give in the last chapter my original "System" and the later 
supplement, which caused a great many questions to be asked, 
which I trust have been satisfactorily answered in this book. 
I was at a place in San Francisco lately where this subject 
was brought up. There was a small party present, all of whom 
had my "System." One of the party worked in a large meat- 
market, where they bought and dressed live poultry. He said 
that occasionally he dressed a hen -that showed no indications 
of being a laying hen, but upon being opened an egg would be 
found in her. I told him the hens that he had described were 
those that laid a very few eggs and laid them only in the 
spring. Their pelvic bones expanded only while the hen was 
being delivered of the egg. This hen has practically but one 
egg under process of development at a time, consequently her 
abdomen does not have to expand to make room for only one 
egg. Whereas the hen that lays 150 eggs per year has a num- 
ber of eggs developing at the same time, and her abdomen ex- 
pands in proportion to her needs. The 200-egg hen has a 
still larger number of eggs developing and she requires more 
room for them, hence her abdomen expands i-n proportion. 
The 250-egg lien has a still larger number of eggs of all sizes 
developing, and her abdomen expands still wider than the 
200-egg hen. When the hen's abdomen expands, her pelvic 
bones, being literally a part of and continuation of her ab- 
domen, must expand and contract w^ith it. When she is 
through laying for the season her abdomen contracts, and the 
pelvic bones must come closer together, which they do, al- 
though there are exceptions to this rule. We will take the 
145-egg hen, for example, of the sanguine temperament. She 
will be four fingers abdomen and ^/g-inch pelvic bone, w^hen 
in normal condition, with pelvic bones of good shape. We 
draw our hand along her breast-bone (keel) from front to 
rear, and find her abdomen does not drop down the least 
bit below the rear of the breast-bone. This hen we might 
call a "normal hen." Her pelvic bones will, in all probability, 
expand and contract in conformance with her condition of lay- 
ing. If she is in the flush of laying, her pelvic bones may be 
about 1^/4 inches apart; later in the season, when she is not 
laying so frequently, her pelvic bones may close to about IV2 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. '^ 127 

inches; and when she stops laying for the season her pelvic 
bones may close to about IV4 inches. This will very likely 
be repeated each year. 

Now we will select a hen of the 250-egg' type. We draw 
our hand along her keel, as with the last hen; we find she is all 
right, closely built and firm. We drop her and take another 
250-egg type hen. The performance of drawing the hand 
along the keel is for the purpose of picking out the future 
breeders that may later bag down, indicating weak ovaries. 
In this connection I wish to say that in selecting breeders 
I found that the best way to eliminate the hens that would 
begin to bag down behind was to follow directions as given 
below. Of late years I have not had this trouble to contend 
with. It is always the heavy layer that breaks down, which 
indicates weak ovaries, and we do not want to breed from 
such. 

In drawing our hand along her keel (breast-bone) we find 
a slight bagging down in the rear. . The abdomen seems to drop 
below the rear of the breast-bone slightly. We will say this 
is a pullet, perhaps six or eight months old. She is well de- 
veloped, and you can call her one of your best hens. You are 
proud of her, and have decided to set every egg she lays. Do 
not use her as a breeder. This pullet should be put in a yard 
with others of her formation after she is sixteen months old and 
trap-nested. She may stop laying any time and never lay 
another egg, or she may continue to lay another year or so ; in 
any case, she has been such a continuous layer that her frame 
has become set to that form, and her pelvic bones, as it were, 
set and will contract very little; they will indicate that she is 
laying, when in fact she may not have laid for years. I have 
kept such hens until they were 6 years old, and some of them 
have never laid an egg after they were about 16 months, still 
others after they were 2 years old. This is where a trap- 
nest will save you money. When you select your hens by 
Charts 44 and 45 at 16, 28, and 40 months of age, the ones 
that bag down the least bit should be put in a yard by them- 
selves and trap-nested to discover the ones whose ovaries 
have broken down and will lay no rriore. This is not difficult 
to discover, as the hen that is over the 205-egg type lays more 
or less at all times during the first two years of her life, if 
not stimulated to over-production her first year. "A 



128 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

little learning is a dangerous thing," is an old saying applicable 
to this case. When a nxan says, "Don't kill that laying hen," 
he should furnish you with an X-ray outfit that will enable 
you to comply with his request. 

The writer has used the pelvic-bone proposition for over 
forty years in selecting the laying hen, and has found the fol- 
lowing to be a very good method in selecting the hen that is 
not laying: 

The hen that scores 130 eggs her first laying year would 
measure about ^/s of an inch between her pelvic bones after 
she stops laying for the season. The hen that scores 150 eggs 
her first laying hear would measure about 1 inch between her 
pelvic bones after she stops laying for the season. The hen 
that scores 200 eggs would measure about V-/^ inches between 
the pelvic bones after she stops laying for the season. The 
hen that scores 250 eggs would measure about IV2 inches be- 
tween the pelvic bones after she stops laying for the season. The 
250-egg hen does stop more or less after her second and some- 
times after her first season, if not cared for right; but if feed 
and environment are right, she may continue to lay more or less 
until 3 years old, when her frame may become set. When 
she is done laying her pelvic bones may remain 2 inches apart. 
As hens grow older their pelvic bones become thicker during the 
winter months when they are not laying. The thickness varies 
according to their type, the typical egg type changing little or 
none, while the more pronounced the meat type becomes the 
more the pelvic bones change, owing to the increase or decrease 
of flesh on the abdomen (flank) of the fowl as it takes on or 
loses flesh, as indicated by her breast-bone. 

CHAPTER XIX. 



Final Remarks on Constitutional Vigor and Vitality. 

As we have now reached the end of "The Call of the Hen," 
I wish to impress upon the reader's mind the importance of 
the five propositions that govern the Selection, Breeding, and 
Profitable Keeping of Poultry as follows: Capacity, Con- 
dition, Type, Prepotency, and Vitality or Constitutional 
Vigor. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 129 

No doubt you have a good working knowledge of the 
first four subjects, and you wonder why I have not written a 
chapter on Vitahty. The reason is, that when I decided to 
write "The Call of the Hen," I told my wife that I would write 
nothing that even a blind man could not understand and 
practice. I have tried to do so, for to her patience, perse- 
verance, and untiring zeal I owe much of the success I have had 
in getting out this book. 

The writer can see only three ways of detecting vitality 
in a fowl; the most ancient is intuition, then observation, and 
lastly the trap-nest. A hen may be a typical 250-egg type 
hen, she may have the very best of care and food, and yet, 
for lack of vitality, may not be able to lay over 150 eggs per 
year. Let us take the steam engine for example. There are 
a great many types of engines besides the high and low- 
pressure ones, as there are a great many types of hens and cock 
birds. The diameter of cylinder, length of stroke, and revolu- 
tions per minute give you the capacity of the engine, as the 
length and depth of abdomen in the fowl gives its capacity. 
The fuel fed into the fire-box generates the steam (vitality) 
to run the engine, as the food fed into the hen's abdomen 
generates her vitality. 

The writer has owned steam engines where there was de- 
fective fire-box construction — scale in the boiler and tubes, 
loose rings in the piston head, cylinder worn out of true, and 
other defects that reduced the efficiency of the power system 
a great deal — or, in other words, lowered the vitality of the 
engine. In just the same way a weak digestive system in a 
250-egg type hen will reduce her egg-yield. But do not think 
that you can make a 150-egg type hen in perfect condition lay 
200 eggs by any of the feeding formulas now in vogue. If you 
try to force her, she will go to flesh and then break down with 
liver trouble. 

If you lack the intuitive faculty and lack the time to 
carefully observe individual hens, I would advise you to select 
the hens by the chart you wish to breed from. When they 
are about a year old you can breed from them. Then, if you 
wish to breed from only those with the greatest vitality, trap- 
nest these hens for the next two or three years. The hens 
with the greatest vitality will be great layers and strong, 
p H — 9 



130 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

vigorous birds, and save the time wasted in trap-nesting a 
lot of birds that Vou will eventually have to discard. 

CHAPTER XX. 



Walter Hogan's System. 

This chapter contains "Walter Hogan's System," as 
written by M. F. Greeley, editor of the Dakota Farmer, to 
whom I gave the notes. This was published in 1904. At that 
time Mr. Greeley refused to put in anything about the skull 
theory. He said that I would make myself the laughing-stock 
of the world. I am merely putting this old work in this book 
in order that the reader may know the evolution of the dis- 
covery. The pelvic-bone method of selection was, of course, 
my first discovery; then later, the relation between depth of 
abdomen and thickness of pelvic bones; after that, the w^orking 
out of the mathematical relation between egg-laying ability 
and those points before mentioned. 

When I came to California I gave out merely the "Walter 
Hogan's System" which had been printed in Minnesota; later 
I published a "Supplement," which gave a general idea of the 
capacity and type proposition; still later I issued typewritten 
charts as they are found in this book. I could have done all 
of this many years ago, but my reasons for not doing it are ex- 
plained elsewhere. 

I do not desire any of my readers to make the mistake of 
considering what comes after this as having anything to do 
with "The Call of the Hen," except in a historical way. 

Walter Hogan. 

Petaluma, Calif., July 31, 1913. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



131 



WALTER HOGAN'S SYSTEM 




Walter Hogan, 

The Originator of the Walter Hogan System. 

There are two ways of selection, described in this docu- 
ment. 

When hens are in flush of laying, selection by the pelvic 
bones alone is the easier way ; but when not in flush of laying, 
the pelvic bones together with the abdomen will be found the 
most ready way. (See Supplement, next page.) 

Please bear in mind that the hen with thin pelvic bones 
and large, soft abdomen is the heavy egg-laying type. 

The hen with thick pelvic bones and large, fleshy, fatty 
abdomen is the large beef type. 

The hen with medium-thick pelvic bones and large, 
medium-fleshy and medium-fatty abdomen is the dual-purpose 
type, and can be made to lay fairly well or made to produce 
flesh, it being a matter of how she is fed. 



132 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

The hen with small abdomen is of small account, either as 
an egg or as a meat proposition, as she lacks the abdominal 
capacity to digest and assimilate food enough to sustain the 
every-day wear of her system and at the same time to produce 
eggs or flesh in paying quantities. 

Everything related here applies to the .male bird as well, 
only in a lesser degree. 

The remarks in regard to pullets refer to mature pullets, 
as Leghorn pullets are at five months old in the New England 
States. 

My birds in Massachusetts were bred for eggs only for 
years, and their type became set and their pelvic bones con- 
tracted, when not laying, to average about 25 per cent; but I 
find that hens bred promiscously contract about 50 per cent. 

The points to be borne in mind in using this System are : 

That selection by the pelvic bones alone is best made in 
the flush of laying. 

That thin pelvic bones and soft abdomen indicate the 
egg type. 

That thick pelvic bones and hard, fleshy, fatty abdomen 
indicate the beef type. 

The size of the abdomen indicates the capacity of the 
bird, either as an egg or as a meat proposition, as the case may 
be — large abdomen, large capacity; small abdomen, small 
capacity. 

The same rules apply to the cockerel, cock, male bird, or 
rooster, as he may be called. 

In order to determine the capacity of a hen for egg-pro- 
duction by one selection, she should be in normal condition 
and not more than a few days broody. 

The estimates in this document refer to hens about one 
year old. As a rule, they will lay less each year as they grow 
older — how much less depends on the vitality of the hen, other 
things considered. 

Supplement to Walter Hogan's System. 

If you will get a little 1-foot rule to check yourself up while 
getting used to measuring with the tips of your fingers, as in 
Fig. 4, you will have no trouble in applying its principles right. 
You can hold the bird feet up and head down between your 
knees while you are measuring; then hold as in Fig. 4 and 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 133 

learn to estimate the width right. Anything under 1 inch 
will not pay, all over 1^/2, inches will pay; from 1 to l^/s 
inches are doubtful; 2 inches is about the 200-egg type, 
2V8 inches about the 250-egg type, and 2V4 inches about the 
280-egg type. 

Hens measuring from 1 to l^/g inches should be put in a 
yard while being fed well and looked over once a week at 
night in the dark for about eight weeks, if you wish to make a 
careful test. Any that come up or down in measurement can 
be put in the good or bad yards, as the case may be. H^ns will 
go up or down about 25 per cent in measurements as they are 
in flush of laying or not. The best time to examine hens is 
after dark while on roost, which should be about 18 inches 
from the floor. Place left hand on back of hen, lift up tail 
with thumb of right hand, and apply tips of fingers to pelvic 
bones. With a little practice you will be able to inspect thirty 
per minute. It is admitted by all physicians,, professors, and 
students of physiology that I have talked with in regard to 
this matter that the abdominal capacity of a hen, together 
with a strong vital temperament, has everything to do with 
her value as a laying proposition. The pelvic bones (being a 
continuation of the body structure of the fowl and subject to 
very small changes in the formation of flesh) are, when compara- 
tively straight and thin, an index to the width of the abdomen, 
and the best if not the only one we have, as they protrude from 
the body and may be easily measured. The depth of the ab- 
domen can be taken by placing the palm of the hand crosswise 
below, between the pelvic bones and the rear of the breast- 
bone. Sometimes it will be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 fingers. (A 
finger means ^j^ of an inch.) Also place fingers between 
pelvic bones and tail-bone. Sometimes it will take one, some- 
times two fingers. In this way you can judge the size of 
the abdomen, which, with the pelvic development, will be a 
rule as to a hen's value as a layer, except in rare cases of mis- 
placed or diseased organs. Sometimes a hen will have a large 
abdomen, but her pelvic bones will grow crooked and come 
almost together, like the horns of a Jersey cow, and she will 
lay better than the distance apart of her pelvic bones will 
indicate, but never will do as well as she should, and should 
not be bred from. She wastes too much nervous force in 



134 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

laying. The farther you get away from the crow formation 
the better your hens will be. 

As a rule, fowls are almost twice as long coming to maturi- 
ty in California as they are in the Eastern and Middle Western 
States. What the reason is I suspect, but do not know, but 
will find out in the next two years. 

No document purporting to be a copy of "Walter Hogan's 
System" is genuine without my signature as is set hereunder: 
Wishing you the best of success, I am, sincerely yours, 

The Walter Hogan System of Increasing Egg-Produc- 
tion BY Selection and Breeding. 

It has been estimated that to add one-half dozen eggs to 
the annual producing capacity of every hen in the United 
States would result in additional returns from our poultry 
sufficient to pay the national debt within less than a year. 
Allowing this to be true, we are prepared to show that the 
method of selection and breeding herein outlined is capable 
of paying off our great debt several times during a single 
year, without having to increase the number of hens kept a 
single bird or the cost of keeping them a single dollar. 

The method — or "discovery," we might call it — has been 
tested by the writer in every conceivable way, regardless of 
expense, time, or trouble, and has been found absolutely fault- 
less in every particular. It has been submitted to one Gov- 
ernment Experiment Station (as will be shown later) with the 
same unerring results, and also to a number of the foremost 
poultrymen of America, who fully and without exception 
corroborate all that is claimed. 

This, you will agree with us, means a revolution in eco- 
nomical egg-production; it means, too, that no poultryman, 
however small his flock, can afford to go on in the old way a 
single year longer. 

Every animal on the farm has a well-defined mission all 
its own, outside of the general one of producing meat. The 
great mission of the cow is to produce milk; of the sheep, wool ; 
and the mission of the hen is evidently and pre-eminently egg- 
production. This being the case, her value varies or should 
vary largely with her ability to produce eggs. And still it is a 
well-known fact that, while every farm animal has been se- 
lected and bred for the best there was in it along its own 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



135 



peculiar line, and all prizes have been awarded accordingly, 
the hen has been bred largely and prizes awarded her almost 
wholly for feather and markings, the judges seldom or never 
deeming it important to know w^hether she was capable of 
laying at all or not. 

The writer was amazed to find this state of things when, 
some years ago, he turned his attention from managing woolen- 
mill interests to trying to manage a poultry-yard. But, in 
spite of the fact that he was wholly unable to find bird or 
strain that w^ere known to be exceptional egg-producers, he 
succeeded, within six years after starting, in building up a 
flock that averaged annually considerably over 200 eggs per 
hen. 

Before deciding to publish this work, I found, after 
diligent inquiry among the leading poultrymen of the United 
States and Canada, and some correspondence reaching to other 




Cut No. 1 — A Leghorn hen showing this development has the 
egg-laying instinct at its maximum. 



136 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



countries, that there was no known method— other than the 
slow and costly one of trap-nesting — of selecting birds of great 
egg-producing capacity. Trap-nesting, in addition to the 
faults mentioned, which makes it almost impracticable for 
the. farmer, had a still more serious one in the writer's judg- 
ment; it could not trap-nest roosters, which I have found to 
be more than "half the flock." For this seemingly insur- 
mountable difficulty I have found an easy solution, and can 
as readily identify the male as the female, and as unerringly. 




Cut No. 
a fair layer. 



2 — This is a hen of minimum development. She is 



The facts of which this document treat are a discovery, a 
method, and a development all in one. The happy inspira- 
tion and discovery came within a few hours ; but it has reached 
this workable and absolutely reliable form by a costly ana- 
lytical and experimental process extending through years. 
After the underlying principle had been found, it had to be 
tested and proved to my own satisfaction Then the various 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



137 



objections and criticisms, which will occur to many readers, 
had to be answered or met by actual practical experiences. 
The method enables one: 

1. To easily and without error weed out all the worthless 
birds from a flock; those that do not lay at all, also those that 
lay so little that it is a loss to keep them. This alone means 
millions to this country. 

2. To separate just as unerringly all pullets before they 
begin to lay; indicating the coming great layers, the fair 
layers, the very poor, and the barren. The latter w41l be 
found in nearly all flocks. 

3 To tell those not liable to lay when disposing of old or 
other hens for the table or market or for other reasons. 

Beginning my investigation, as I was compelled to, with 
birds selected wholly without egg-record, I was soon greatly 
impressed with the dissimilarity of formation of the pelvic 




Cut No. 3 — Hens with this development are of Httle or no 
value as layers. 



138 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

bones and surrounding portions of the body, particularly of the 
former. Some I found nearly closed up, hard, and unyielding; 
others barely admitting one finger between these points; while 
a very few would easily admit the ends of three fingers between 
the tips of the pelvic bones, and these were generally thin, 
tapering, and elastic. With this clue, I was not long in finding 
that my great layers were the latter and my barren and nearly 
barren ones the first mentioned. My attention was next 
forcibly called to this by seeing a long row of dressed pullets 
and hens in a butchering establishment. Noticing the great 




Cut No. 4 — ^Showing a convenient method of holding fowls 
when testing them. 

difference in the formation, I secured the privilege of num- 
bering the hens and Jiaving the entrails, as they were removed, 
left by the side of each bird. In every instance I found my 
suspicion verified; the indications of large numbers of eggs 
and ample machinery to go with them, with the wide, pliable 
pelvic bones; and just the opposite condition with the narrow 
ones, the very least, or no egg indications whatever, with the 
bones very close together at the points and unyielding to 
pressure, hard, thick, and rounded in. This experiment was 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 139 

tried again and again, with different breeds, but never with 
different results. 

I was satisfied I was on the right trail now, and deter- 
mined to spare neither time nor money to make sure I was 
right. For several years following these discoveries I spent 
much time and money visiting well-known poultry men and 
others, frequently paying as high as $10.00 for best known 
layers, only to kill them to prove or disprove my conclusions 
— to photograph the live bird, next her dressed body, then her 
skeleton. In every instance I found my theory correct. I 
divided my own flock according to my findings into three 
flocks, and the very first day's lay proved my theory beyond 
question, so far as one day could. I then divided other and 
many flocks; but wherever they were and whatever breed, 
without an exception the same result followed. 

Skipping a number of years, I might say right here that 
in 1904 I divided the flock of Leghorns, Wyandottes, and 
Plymouth Rocks at the Minnesota Experiment Station at 
Crookston into three pens: first, the best; second, medium 
to poor; third, very poor or barren. I was about twenty-five 
minutes doing this in the presence of C. S. Greene, at that 
time the manager, whom nearly all the leading poultrymen 
knew, and Mr. T. A. Hoverstad, then superintendent of the 
station. These gentlemen then had absolutely no faith in 
the method, not knowing anything about it; but were assured 
by me that if the barren pen laid an egg or either of the others 
failed to perform as I indicated, they were at liberty to pub- 
lish the method and me to the world as a fraud. The first 
day showed pen No. 1, 45 eggs; pen No. 2, 20 eggs; pen No. 3, 
no eggs; and this continued, with slight variations, the entire 
period of the experiment, which lasted for weeks; though not 
a single egg appeared in the barren pen. The per cent of eggs 
to the 100 hens for the entire time was: First pen, 60 per 
cent per day; second pen, 37 per cent; third pen, nothing. 
But for lack of room I might give many more experiments 
and tests fully as startling as the above. 

But to go on : Within a few years after selecting rny first 
layers in this way, I had a flock the larger part of which was 
laying 200 eggs and above per year, individual layers greatly 
exceeding this. 



140 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

Then came another discovery, fully as important as the 
first. I noticed that, though I hatched all my pullets from the 
best layers' eggs, some of them were exceedingly poor layers ; 
now and then one of them barren. I studied upon this for a 
long time, spent more money, and killed many more birds. 
Then with another idea, which as suddenly as the first dawned 
upon me, I made for the slaughter-house once more. I soon 
had a row of forty or so dressed male birds this time laid out 
before me ; and then at a glance I saw my long-sought solution. 
There was the same great difference in the pelvic formation 
found in the hens. I examined my roosters to find that half of 
them were absolutely worthless. Why do I say that the 
rooster "is MORE than half the flock?" Because later I 
found, as many know, that the female offspring take largely 
after the father and the male offspring after the mother. It 
is so with all animals, and almost always so in the human 
family. Had I used males of my own raising, I should 
have done better, but I had not. By the way, I found two 
high-priced and "high-scoring" birds used at the Crookston 
Station in 1904 absolutely without value, and Mr. Greene 
now agrees with me fully that they were, although he was at 
the time quite indignant when I pronounced his costly beauties 
worthless. 

I may say here that, while I found one very good exhibi- 
tion bird in this experiment station flock that was wholly 
worthless as a layer, I am pleased indeed to be able to state 
that one bird which had taken several prizes for markings, etc., 
I found to be a priceless layer. I never saw but one bird that 
came anywhere near being that hen's equal. I found one, 
however, with very poor markings that outranked any hen 
but her. 

From this time on breeding hastened matters fully as 
much as selection, and I soon had — or rather, to be accurate, 
at the end of six years from my first start I had a FLOCK 
AVERAGING CLOSE AROUND 250 EGGS EACH PER 
YEAR; A FLOCK PAYING ME MORE THAN DOUBLE 
THE PROFIT MY FIRST FLOCK COULD. During the 
last few years of this period I again and again, for experi- 
mental purposes, mated excellent hens with narrow-pelvic- 
boned males, and every time a crop of pullets that varied 
greatly in egg-yield was the result. Again and again I bred 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 141 

wide-pelvic-boned males with narrow-boned females with the 
same results. But wide-pelvic-boned males with hens of the 
same formation (with the exception now and then at far-apart 
intervals, a freak) brought excellent layers. Occasionally a 
male bird failed to transmit well, but this I afterwards found 
was only when it was wholly lacking in masculine qualities, as 
denoted by the width and depth of head and back of neck, 
with other indications common to masculinity in all other 
animals." From this time I began mating wide-pelvic-boned 
•males with my widest hens and a marked increase in the 
number of great layers was evident— in fact, the third year it 
was the great exception to find anything but first-class layers 
among the pullets. 

Its Advantages. 

The advantages of this method for one owning even a 
small flock of birds are so apparent that space need not be 
given to discuss it. To one having a large flock it means, must 
mean, a small fortune in additional profit, with no more labor 
or investment ; to those engaged in selling eggs for hatching 
it is bound to mean everything in the near future. It 
would be simply suicidal for a farmer, or anyone depending 
upon the eggs of his flock for the profit, to be so unbusinesslike 
as to buy eggs for hatching from untested flocks. We do not 
believe it would be possible to find one who would do so, after 
knowing from experiment stations and otherwise that the 
method is unfailing. 

Some of the advantages over trap-nesting have been 
stated; perhaps the strongest being that we cannot trap-nest 
roosters. In addition, I might call attention to the fact that 
trap-nesting a single bird must extend over the entire year to 
be at all accurate, and would take many times the amount of 
time it would require — by this method — to settle the laying 
possibilities of a thousand pullets. A little more time would 
settle the laying powers of a large mixed flock at mixed laying 
seasons, which might require two or at least three examina- 
tions a week or ten days apart. 

Again, a worthless pullet can be found when she is from 
five to six months old and fatted and sold without having to 
keep her a full year in order to do it safely. Besides, handling 
hens almost always tends to disturb and discourage laying. 



142 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

Trap-nesting will, if persistently followed the entire year, give 
nearly the exact individual record, which is not material to one 
egg man in a thousand. It cannot be exact, however, as a 
shut-in and otherwise disturbed hen never does her best. 

This method applies to other birds as well — turkeys, for 
instance. Last fall I bought two turkeys for experiment; one 
was SMALL, with LARGE egg-development; the other 
LARGE with SMALL egg-developmeht. The small bird has 
laid and hatched out two litters of fourteen each the present 
season, and has at this date laid twenty- three eggs towards a 
third litter. - The large one laid and hatched fourteen eggs 
early in the season, and has shown no signs of laying since, but 
has taken on much more flesh than the laying turkey. This 
would, in addition to indicating laying turkeys, also show what 
to breed if large birds only are desired — as would nearly always 
be the case with turkeys. 

The absolute surety of never killing a bird for market or 
home consumption that is laying, about to begin laying, or is 
liable to lay in the near future, is another decided advantage 
over the trap-nest, and one of the quickest available ad- 
vantages of the system. 

Again, the process requires no investment in patent nests, 
leg-bands, or other fixings, which amount, in trap-nesting, to 
many times the first and only cost of this method. For ac- 
curacy in all the advantages claimed for this method, we will 
most gladly submit to a test with the greatest expert trap- 
nester that can be selected, if it can be so arranged that some 
high authority in poultry matters or some Government Ex- 
periment Station shall have charge of it. This unconditional 

offer we make to the world. 

^ » 

How TO Select. 

As the basic principle of this method of identifying 
capacity for egg-production is the width and relative condi- 
tion of the pelvic bones and surrounding construction, it is 
obvious that exact measurements cannot be given, unless a 
distinct breed be designated. A Cochin lays a large egg, and 
is built accordingly; a Bantam lays a small egg, and its pelvic 
development in inches is correspondingly smaller. It would 
be manifestly misleading to apply the same measurements 
to the two birds. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 143 

While the ability to make this allowance will come to the 
operator quickly — almost intuitively after a very short ex- 
perience — I have thought best to confine all my descriptions 
and measurements here to one breed of fowls only, the Leg- 
horns, these being a medium-sized, representative bird, well 
scattered over the entire country. It will be easy from the 
measurements to work up or down, as the birds on hand may 
be larger or smaller. It is all a matter of comparison, and, all 
things being equal, the bird with the widest and most pliable 
pelvic bones will be the greatest layer, while the one with very 
narrow contracted pelvic formation will lay little, if at all. 
Behind the pelvic bones lies the egg machinery, and it will be 
found more abundant and roomy the wider the bones. 

Selecting Pullets. 
(Leghorns.) 

Perhaps the best time to select layers for a flock is when 
the pullets are from four to six months old. If all are in a 
uniformly thrifty condition at this time, it is next to impossible 
to make a mistake. The best pullets at that age should show 
a width of about 2 inches, while the best matured laying hens 
should show a development of about 2V8 inches. (See cut 
No. L) 

Pullets of Plymouth Rocks and their class should be se- 
lected about a month later and then show slightly larger, about 
2V8 inches. The best Asiatic pullet, about 2V4 inches at 
seven or eight months old; the Leghorns being earlier matur- 
ers. At the end of six years of careful selecting and breeding 
I found my Leghorn pullets quite as wide and well matured 
at four months as my first ones were at five months. 

Second-class Leghorn pullets from five to seven months 
old will show a development of about iVs inches. (See 
cut No. 2.) 

At six months old all Leghorn pullets showing only 1 inch 
or less pelvic development should be discarded, regardless of 
feather or comb. They will never make layers. (See cut 
No. 3.) 

All things being equal, the earlier a pullet begins to lay the 
better and longer will she lay. 



144 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 



Selecting Mature Layers. 

The next best time to ascertain a hen's laying quahties 
is when the whole flock is in the flush of laying — in other 
words, when about all are at work. Those found then to 
measure about ^ 1% inches are extremely good layers. Some 
flocks have very few of these priceless birds in them, while 
others have good numbers. From this class of layers, and 
above that measurement, and from these only, should eggs 
be saved for hatching. 

Occasionally hens are found measuring as high as 2^/4 
inches; these hens, with the best of care, will lay as high as 280 
eggs per year; those measuring about 2^/3 inches may be de- 
pended upon to go as high as 250. The fact that this kind of 
hen can be found is ample proof that with proper selection 
they can be bred in large numbers. 

Hens found at this time measuring from l^/g to 2 inches 
are real good layers, and should not be discarded, if one wishes 
to build up a large flock, -but they should not be bred from. 
Hens in the flush of laying measuring only IV 4 to IV2 inches 
are poor, and those showing from an inch down should be dis- 
carded, regardless of shape or color. 

A large ^nough flock of the first-mentioned hens would 
make any poor man rich; the second kind would keep them- 
selves and their owners going; while many of the last-named 
class would make a rich man poor. 

Poor layers, kept well and fed a large variety of scraps 
and other foods, will sometimes make pretty fair ^%% records 
for a short time, and birds of the best quality, under exception- 
ally hard conditions, will make poor records. There are also 
occasional freaks in both extremes of measurements, but they 
are so infrequent as not to be at all important. Approxi- 
mately 280-egg hens that measure as high as 2^/3 inches in the 
flush of laying will show about ^/s to V2 inch less when not 
laying, and this shrinkage in measurement will apply to all 
other grades in about this proportion. 

Selecting for Fall Marketing. 

We do not like to kill birds about to begin laying, that 
are laying, or really good ones that are just through laying. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 145 

particularly when there are plenty in the flock that do not 
come under any of these heads. 

In this alone the cost of this method, when once well 
understood, can be saved several times in a single season with 
a good-sized flock of birds. 

While the exceptionally good layers can be told readily 
and at almost any time, laying or not, and an absolutely 
worthless bird can be told the same way, there is a time, just 
when the real good layer is resting and the common to poor 
layer is doing her best, when they come — for a short time only 
— close together in pelvic appearance. 

While it is not safe to kill a bird that measures 1^ /g inches 
or over, it is possible for a very fair layer to not be much wider 
than that at the close of laying out her litter. Some good 
layers, that in the flush of laying will measure P/4 to 2 inches, 
at the close of their laying period will sometimes close up to 
about IVs inches. A very poor layer in the flush of her laying 
time might be 1 V4 to 1^ /s inches, so care must be taken at this 
period not to confound the two conditions, which do not exist 
at any other time. This is referred' to in the Introduction. 
To wholly prevent this — when it is desired to save every at all 
good layer — it is well to make two or possibly three examina- 
tions, a week or so apart. In this way there will be no danger 
of confounding the one about to begin laying with the one 
about to quit, and the poor layer can be told i/om the good 
one. 

When killing a whole flock at two or three years old, as 
many do, no hen measuring iVs inches and under is worth 
keeping ; particularly is this true if the birds have been well fed 
and stimulated to about their full capacity. No hen of any 
value for egg-production will have an egg in her at this time 
and measure so small unless she is a slow, infrequent layer at 
her best. Sometimes this kind of a hen with very small meas- 
urements will be found laying an occasional egg late in the 
season. 

Selecting Roosters. 

We have said how important it is to have males of the 

right formation to mate with the great layers for breeding 

purposes; we need not emphasize this; it is so evident that 

we cannot trap-nest a rooster, and equally so that years of 
p H — 10 



146 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

trap-nesting hens can be ruinously upset in a day by crossing 
with an inferior male, that it would reflect upori our estima- 
tion of the reader's intelligence to say more about it. 

I have found Leghorn roosters that measured 1^/4 inches, 
but they are rare and priceless. A good matured bird should 
measure V- /% inches and a pretty fair one 1 inch. I would not 
use one that nieasured less, if I could possibly help it. Many 
fine-looking birds measure only ^/2 inch, but such ones will ruin 
the offspring of the best layers and should be discarded, what- 
ever their qualities in feather, tip of comb, or anything else. 

Now and then the objection reaches us that the high-type 
roosters referred to cannot be found. I have found them, as 
others have, and I believe there are nearly or quite as many in 
proportion as there are of the 250 and above hens; but we do 
not save all the roosters as we do all the pullets, and they are 
correspoiidingly scarce among mature males. By selecting 
always from large numbers of males before they are killed off 
this objection will be largely and quickly overcome. 

The fact that males of this class can be selected is of it- 
self a discovery sufficient to revolutionize the whole poultry 
business without the examination of a single hen — were time 
enough taken; but the two together bring absolute and imme- 
diate results. 

In the hands of a slightly experienced or an at all compe- 
tent person the element of chance is entirely removed by this 
method of selecting layers and males; and one is just as sure 
of the results sought as that a hen will die if her head is cut 
off. 

We ask but onfe thing: that judgment be withheld till 
method be tried. If the tests are fairly conducted, there can 
be no failure. 

Crude infringements and imitations of this discovery and 
System — as of everything else of value that has cost years of 
investigating and experimenting — are liable to spring up, but 
the safety and economy of going direct to the fountain-head 
need scarcely be suggested. 

Dated November 20, 1904. 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 147 



LESSON 10. 



On Selection and Breeding for Egg-Production. 

1. What four things influence egg-production or largely 
determine the number of eggs a hen will lay? 

2. What is "capacity," and how is it measured or de- 
termined? 

3. What would a five-finger "capacity" or abdomen 
indicate? a three to five-finger "capacity?" 

4. What is meant by "condition"? 

5. What portion of the body is a good indicator as to 
whether the hen is in good "condition" or poor "condition"? 

6. What outside factors or environments are largely re- 
sponsible for the "condition" of any hen? 

7. Is "condition" a thing that the common sense or 
gumption of the poultry man can control largely? How? 

8. How does the breast of the hen appear when she is in 
good "condition"? 

9. The first joint of the forefinger is divided into how 
many parts for the purpose of determining "condition," or 
represents how many fingers out of "condition"? 

10. If a hen has a one-finger abdomen or "capacity" and 
is three fingers out of "condition," about how many fingers 
abdomen or "capacity" w^ould she have if this same hen was 
in "condition?" or, in other words, each finger out of 'condi- 
tion" means how many more fingers "capacity" or depth of 
abdomen if the same hen was in normal "condition"? 

11. If a hen is three fingers out of "condition," should 
she ever be used again as a breeder? 

12. What is meant by "type" in this lesson in selecting 
hens for egg-production? 

13. What is meant by "egg type"? by "dual-purpose 
type"? by "beef type"? How do you determine each of the 
three types? 

14. Do we find practically the same difference in the 
"types" of male birds as in females? 

15. What difference is made in the use of food consumed 
by the ''egg type" and the "beef type"? 



148 THE CALL OF THE HEN. 

16. If you had a flock of hens of the "beef type," how 
should they be fed as regards to quantity so as to get the 
largest possible egg-yield and prevent them from becoming 
too fat? 

17. Do we find all three "types" in all varieties of poul- 
try or are each of these "types" confined to certain varieties 
or breeds of poultry? 

18. What does a pelvic bone ^/le of an inch in thickness 
indicate? one ^/s of an inch in thickness? 

19. A hen in good condition, with a two-finger abdomen 
or "capacity" and V4-inch pelvic bone, should lay about how 
many eggs during her first year? 

20. A hen in good condition, with a five-finger abdomen 
or "capacity" and a Vie-inch pelvic bone, should lay about 
how many eggs the first year? 

LESSON 11. 



Selection and Breeding for Egg-Production, 

1. Should we breed from poultry with straight or crooked 
pelvic bones? Why? 

2. About what per cent less eggs will a hen with crooked 
pelvic bones, close together, lay than a hen of the same breed- 
ing with straight pelvic bones, farther apart? How can this 
defect be largely eliminated from a flock? 

3. Does a hen that has an abdomen bagging down over 
the rear of the breast bone indicate a strong or a weak ovarian 
or reproductive system? Should they be used for breeders? 
Why? 

4. What is meant by "prepotency" or "amativeness" ? 
5^ What does it indicate, in judging males or females for 

"prepotency" as described in this method, if the thumb is Vs 
of an inch ahead of the forefinger? if the thumb is V4 of an 
inch behind the forefinger? 

6. Which of the two would make the best breeder in 
transmitting its good qualities to its offspring? 

7. Some poultrymen mate females with a record of 150 
eggs each to males of the 150-egg type or males bred from 
hens with equally good records, and the offspring from such 



THE CALL OF THE HEN. 149 

matings often lay only 100 or 125 eggs on the average. In 
your opinion, what causes this decrease in the number of eggs? 

8. How many eggs should a hen lay the first year to 
justify you in keeping her the second year as a breeder or as a 
layer? 

9. In breeding for egg-production, would you prefer to 
breed from males that mature early and from females that 
lay early, or would you select the opposite kind? Why? 

10. Should you breed from the fall and winter layers, or 
should you select for breeders those that wait until spring to 
lay? Why? 

11. Should you breed from the active, alert birds, or 
the inactive, lazy ones? Why? 

12. Should you breed from those that are early to rise 
and late to retire, or from the opposite? Why? 

13. Should you breed from the heavy eaters or feeders, 
or from those that eat comparatively little? Why? 

14. Other things being equal, would you prefer to breed 
from a male bred from a high-laying hen, or from one bred 
from a medium layer? Why? 

15. What is meant by "stamina" and "vigor" in poul- 
try? 

16. Which has the most to do with determining the 
number of eggs a hen will lay — the breeding, the feeding or 
the housing? Why? 

17. What difference would there be in the probable 
number of eggs laid by a hen with lots of "capacity," a six- 
finger abdomen, with a thick pelvic bone, 1 inch in thickness, 
and a hen with but little "capacity," a two-finger abdomen, 
with a rather thin pelvic bone, ^/le of an inch in thickness, 
both hens being in good condition? 

18. Everything else being equal, which moult first, as a 
rule, the good layers or the poor layers? 

19. What, if anything, has the width or the distance 
between the pelvic bones themselves got to do with egg- 
production? 

20. Do we feed hens for the purpose of feeding eggs into 
their bodies, or do we feed them to develop the eggs which 
selection and breeding or Nature has placed within the hen ? 



Learn Poultry Farming 

{The Quisenherry Way) 

By Correspondence Through 

The American School 
of Poultry Husbandry 

The Only Exclusive Poultry School in the World 
Teaches Every Branch of the Poultry Business 

The Poultry industry in the United States amounts to "A 
Billion Dollars" each year. The American School of Poultry 
Husbandry will teach you how to succeed in raising poultry on a 
large or small scale and guarantees satisfaction or refunds your 

money. Opportunities were never better than now and you 
can harvest your crop every day in the year regardless of drouths, 
floods, wars or panics. 

Experience is a Dear Teacher! 

Mistakes cost money! Thousands of people have failed to 
make a financial success of the poultry business solely because of 
improper methods due to a lack of reliable information. Don't run 
the risk of failure when you can insure success! Any one of a 
hundred single mistakes you might make in a single season would 
cost you more than a complete course in the American School of 
Poultry Husbandry. 

YOU CAN GET OUR CATALOGUE FREE AND IT WILL 
EXPLAIN THE WAY. YOU NEED THIS COURSE 

Whether you are a beginner or an "old timer," a farmer or a 
"back lotter," it will pay you to investigate this .course, and to do 
it now, while the special rates and terms are in force. Remember, 
The Ainerican School of Poultry Husbandry is the only exclusive 
poultry School in the world. It is unanimously endorsed by thou- 
sands of enthusiastic students in 48 states and 12 foreign countries. 
Here is the opportunity of a lifetime to put both feet on the road 
to success in this fascinating and profitable business. Send today 
for a copy of our Free Book, "Dollars and Sense in the Poultry 
Business." 

The American School of Poultry Husbandry 

T. E. Quisenherry, President 
Leavenworth, Kan. 



^^iGsl^i^rsaplliliiiiiiiliiiMl 




